[ad_1]
It's a full moon on September 24th.
If the last few months have been anything to do, this will be accompanied by a public discussion on how this affects human behavior, namely the hospital admissions and arrests statements, crazy antics in children.
The behavioral effects of belief in the moon are not new and go back to ancient times. But what is the proof that the Moon has an impact on behavior?
As a criminologist, I look at evidence related to arrests and criminal behavior.
The only explanation I can see that links criminology to the phases of the Moon concerns the practical aspects of crime: when the moon is full, there is more light.
Although dated, one of the most significant studies on the phases of the moon and its relationship to behavior is a 1985 meta-analysis – a study of the results of 37 published and unpublished studies. The article concludes that it is not wise to infer that people behave more or less strangely between phases of the moon. The authors write:
Alleged relations between moon phases and behavior can be attributed to inappropriate analyzes […] and a willingness to accept any deviation from chance as evidence of a lunar effect.
Continue with this story and more by registering now
Two more recent studies have examined the links between criminal activity and the phases of the Moon.
A study published in 2009 examined more than 23,000 cases of aggravated assaults that occurred in Germany between 1999 and 2005. The authors found no correlation between the battery and the different lunar phases.
A study published in 2016 was careful to distinguish between inside and outside crimes committed in 13 US states and the District of Columbia in 2014.
The authors found no connection between lunar phases and total crime or indoor crime.
But they found that the intensity of the moonlight had a substantial positive effect on criminal activity in the open air. As moonlighting increased, criminal activity intensified.
An explanation of this finding is what is called "the hypothesis of enlightenment" – suggesting that criminals like to have enough light to exercise their craft, but not to the point of increasing their chances of apprehension.
There may also be more movement of people during milder nights, which increases the number of casualties.
Why do some people continue to believe that the moon causes criminal or antisocial behavior? The answer probably lies in human cognition and our tendency to focus on what we expect or expect to be true.
At a planned lunar event, such as a full moon or super, we expect a change in behavior, so we pay more attention when we see it. In the field of cognitive psychology, we speak of confirmation bias.
But other questions remain, including why behavioral effects must be inherently negative? Even if there was a direct effect, explanations of why acts of kindness and altruism do not increase or decrease during the phases of the moon are clearly absent.
It is likely that we assume that folklore is true and believe that we become the werewolf and not the sheep.
Wayne Petherick is an associate professor of criminology at Bond University, Robina, Australia. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
[ad_2]
Source link
