Do phases of the moon affect human behavior in a negative way?

There’s no scientific evidence of this, but I can tell you from experience, the ERs get busier when there is a full moon.

Well, other people might laugh it off or think it’s nonsense, but I totally do…

Every single time there is a full moon I feel much weirder. Okay, not necessarily weirder, but more “intense”. Either sometimes sad, angry, hornier…........ LOL. But yeah, for me, as a woman, I totally feel it. So for me yes I can definitely say it affects me…..

No, the moon does not.

See confirmation bias

Also communal reinforcement

And specifically how they relate to full moon and lunar effects

Nope.

People make jokes about it, but lots of grant money has gone into studies to try to prove this phenomenon with no joy.

I tend to think the moon has effects, but I wouldn’t necessarily label them “negative” per se.

The moon certainly has some effects – it changes the light levels and gets people’s attention when it’s not entirely blocked by clouds. And it is certainly true that many people think it has various effects. Many people who deal with the public and work at night say that they see more crazy behavior around a full moon.

Even if I were to completely buy the skeptical arguments against it*, I would still have to note the above as actual things, and say that that will have effects on behavior. If anyone rejects that, I’m liable to develop a bias against their thinking as rabid skeptics, because it’s just clearly entirely true. But it’s not a black and white simple effect like only more crazy or entirely negative – humans aren’t that simple.

(* Registered skeptics put out some of the most unscientific argumentative junk reasoning – the main distinction being that they try to dress it up as science, and that they actively hunt down other ideas to shut down open-minded exploration of certain types.)

And, since I know many very smart and sanely-skeptical people who are interested in such things to some (or to a very great) degree, who would say so, in addition to what I wrote above, I would say, from anecdotal evidence and the agreement of sensitive smart spiritually-oriented people I know, as well as sensitive smart non-spiritual but non-uber-skeptical people I know, that ya the moon can have effects on people’s and animals’ way of being.

I’ve heard too that there’s more crime going on during full moons and more people having sex LOL. Also the term “lunatic” meaning going crazy because of the full moon. Apparently since we are made of mostly water, and something about the moon pulls towards the ocean, IDK.

Other people are skeptics because they themselves have never felt a thing during the full moon but I can say completely that I’ve noticed my behavior intensifies.

Nope. Not even a little bit.

Yes it does.
I used to work as an operator, and we handled calls from the local prison. You could tell when there was a full moon by the erratic behavior of the prisoners.
I have read that positive ions in the air increases during full moons.

“I have read that positive ions in the air increases during full moons.”
Where? And if so, what does “positive ions” mean? and what is the mechanism by which they would influence behavior?

I used to be a werewolf but i’m alright noooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww!!
Bless ya gramps for that antique gag :)

We had a lot more drug overdoses this past weekend than we normally have at the hospital. Either it was the moon or a new batch of heroin hit town.

I doubt it. We used to joke about it when I used to work with the public, but I can’t see how it really has any influence.

Regarding theft, it does make the dark night less dark. Just enough light to see your way without needing a flashlight and calling attention to you.

I always thought, as a kid, that the word lunatic (lunar) derived from sufferers symptoms being directly affected by a full moon.

I’m not at my computer at the moment, but a meta-analysis of 37 studies related to the moon’s affect on behavior and psychology found no correlation at all.

“Much Ado About the Full Moon”, 1985. Easy to find on the Google machine.

Some of the locals behaviour is definitely affected, one of our town’s pubs is called the Half Moon

Without data all we have are opinions. I will add one more. (The first part is data.)

Tides are higher when the moon is in line with the Earth and sun (Full moon and new moon). Now imagine hundreds of thousands of years of early humans living near the shoreline and depending upon the ocean’s bounty for food. Eventually they would figure out that a full moon either brings more fish or more floods and would begin adjusting their lives around it. The ones that ignored the full moon would have a higher chance of being washed away or not getting in on the fish cakes. That would reduce their survivability rate by a tiny amount. Carry that along for generations and you’ve got an entire population innately trained to behave differently when there is a full moon.

If you were a farmer in the mid-west before lights and tractors you used the full moon to harvest at night. Bringing in the crops might be the difference between success and failure.

If you are a crackhead looking to pick up some cash by nefarious methods you can roam the neighborhood without a flashlight searching for soft targets.

One more thing about the full moon lighting up the night sky, I think it’s proven that light can affect our circadian rhythm. Maybe some people who are very sensitive are more likely to sleep less on full moon evenings, and just having more population awake when they usually are sleeping might cause more trouble.

Mostly, I think it’s just superstition, but it’s fun.

http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/bul/97/2/286/

Conducted a meta-analysis of 37 published and unpublished studies to examine relations between phases of the moon; type of lunar cycle; sex; publication practices; geographical features (latitude, population density); and several types of lunacy, including mental hospital admissions, psychiatric disturbances, crisis calls, homicides, and other criminal offenses. Results of effect-size estimates show that phases of the moon accounted for no more than 1% of the variance in activities usually termed lunacy. Alleged relations between phases of the moon and behavior can be traced to inappropriate analyses, a failure to take other (e.g., weekly) cycles into account, and a willingness to accept any departure from chance as evidence of a lunar effect. (3½ p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record© 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

^ Wish i’d read that when I was a kid, although to be fair I fucking hated science

It is interesting to note that a mosquito on your arm has more direct gravitational pull on your body than the moon does.

I get a little taller during a full moon. But then again, I am full of, um, stuff

I just ran some quick numbers. Is math considered data? (I made a quick excel spread sheet so I can try different numbers easily.)
I took two populations and split them 50/50. I assumed one generation is 20 years.
Then I assumed the 1% advantage number you mentioned and gave half of it to one group while subtracting half from the the other. After 208 generations or 4160 years the population with the advantage outnumbers the other by 8 to 1.
Of course this ignores wars, mass starvation, earthquakes, disease, volcanoes, etc. but I can see how a tribe that used the moon to its advantage (1%) could outreproduce and eventually take over the tribes that did not.
That small, immeasurable effect when carried over from generation to generation can have a big effect down the road.
There could be remnants of that left in our brains – just like babies maintain the Moro reflex left over from our chimp ancestors.

All data aside, is there anyone here who doesn’t think looking at a full moon is cool? (I didnb’t think so.)
Maybe that observation in and of itself releases some pleasure chemical, perhaps dopamine, into our systems and makes some of us want to hop between the sheets or do other things.

(It sure works for me.)

Is math considered data?

No, you didn’t make any measurements. Your input is a guess. “I assumed the 1% advantage number”.

I would say you proposed a theory, and the next step would be making actual measurements to see if your model fits observed reality.

Thank you everyone for your responses. This is one of my favorite threads in my time in Fluther. I love the thinking going on. Well done everyone. Lots to ponder.

@ucme And then you learned something that Oxford hasn’t yet?

”Middle English: from Old French lunatique, from late Latin lunaticus, from Latin luna moon (from the belief that changes of the moon caused intermittent insanity).”
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/lunatic

(Just because skeptical materialists can’t think of a materialist explanation, doesn’t mean something isn’t happening that they don’t understand. However somehow this causes some skeptics to argue with certainty that that thing they don’t understand isn’t happening.)

@Zaku So that kid had a point then?
I knew I was special ;-》

skeptics to argue with certainty that that thing they don’t understand isn’t happening

No, skeptics are pointing out that no such thing is happening.

It’s confirmation bias. If there’s a spike of emergency room visits during a new moon, nobody mentions it. During a quarter moon nobody claims the moon is involved.

If there’s a full moon, people remark on it.

As Seek pointed out above, looking at actual data shows there is no correlation

I’m going to quibble a little bit with @Call_Me_Jay
A skeptic who is honest with herself will not say, “No such thing is happening”, but will say, “There is no evidence to show that such thing is happening.” But I agree with the intent of your post.

@Rarebear Point taken. No such thing has been observed.

I will qualify, though, that if enough evidence shows that no such thing is true (such as Bigfoot, or a flat Earth) a skeptic will just say, “Nope” and move on.

Except by all the people who subjectively observe it.

Is there a quantifiable scientific measure for degree of craziness in the population?

The lack of empirical data and conclusive studies doesn’t say much. It just says there are no such conclusive studies. But if you’ve ever looked into what things do have such studies, and what those studies and the conversations around them are like… you’d realize how high a standard that is, and how little it says to observe that there is no conclusive proof about a subject.

My meta-analysis covered thirty-seven studies, and concluded that there was no correlation between actual observable fact and popular public perception.

“Except by all the people who subjectively observe it.”

The plural of anecdote is not evidence.

Is there a quantifiable scientific measure for degree of craziness in the population?

There’s a quantifiable measure of the number of people admitted to the hospital with wounds caused by the craziness in the population.

So. This is like my mosquito question?

On another thread I asked if the insecticide spraying was making the mosquitoes more aggressive, having felt like they are ‘worse’ this year. A common theme in responses was that I was simply noticing them more because of the Zika problem.

Consensus here ,at least scientifically speaking, is that sometimes a shit ton of crazy stuff happens, and it coincidentally happens to be on a night with a full moon occasionally. Then I subconsciously make a correlation between the behavior and lunar phases ?

That’s plausible.

I know the redfish here bite better after a full moon. But that’s because of the tides. I suppose one could falsely think the lunar phase itself is the reason, which it kind of is. But it’s the effect of the moon on the water, not the moon on the fish.

Right. It’s taking that and correlating it with getting bitten by a hobo on your way home from the tackle shop that is where the argument falls apart.

Gotcha. I also agree with others here that the increase in illumination makes for more activity.

So. If we could see in the dark always, would it be batshit crazy every night?

So American Werewolf in London was not a documentary then?
Rats…that shit felt real

Am I the only one on the planet who thinks moonlight from a full moon beaming through my bedroom window and falling on my lover’s face and body is incredibly romantic and exciting?

Heck. Just writing that sentence works for me!

^Not at all. I love the moon.

@MrGrimm888 I think most people feel this way. I think that would make an interesting study although it would be hard to do. They’d need to measure cortisol and endorphins. The full moon shines on my bed early in the evening. That means we are both awake and there is time for a little “activity” under perfect lighting. I’d be willing to bet my Testosterone levels are affected.
If I had a west facing window it would mean the sun is going to rise soon and I have to get up. Maybe the study needs to include bedroom window direction.

And other ambient light. There are too many street lights around my place for the moon phase to make much difference.

@Seek As you know, being near Lake Ontario means it is pitch black here at night. We can see the Milky Way most nights. A full moon makes a huge difference. We can easily see our Moon Shadow!

Sounds lovely. I went from NYC to the Tampa suburbs. I’ve never seen a truly naked sky, except in pictures.

You can see by starlight when there’s no moon and you’re entirely away from all lights, like in the mountains. The Milky Way is plain to see in those conditions.

I can’t find a good photo online, though. They all exaggerate it with time exposures or Photoshop.