cabbagehead
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A lot of people perceive increased crime, lewd behavior, and other undesirable things during a full moon.
In reality, there is no statistical evidence that any of these occur more often than nights with any other moon phase.
If people believe something will happen, they will take notice of evidence that supports this belief. For example, the emergency room nurse in the video mentions looking outside during busy nights to see if there was a full moon out. If the moon was in its first quarter, do you think she would attribute the people coming in to this phase, or just write it off as a normal busy night?
So, why do we think the full moon makes people crazy? The belief has a long historic tradition that has seen some modern reinterpretations.
Wolves, which live everywhere except South America and Antarctica, howl at night. When they do this, they point their noses up so the howl travels as far as possible. Nearly every culture interpreted this as howling at the moon. Many cultures also believed in werewolves or werewolf-like creatures who switched from being humans to animals in the presence of a full moon. This insanity was eventually dubbed "lunacy," after the Greco-Roman moon goddess Luna. It soon became a catch-all term for any mental illness.
Thirty years ago, Arnold Lieber's book "How the Moon Affects You" caused a stir with his biological tides theory. He believed that since our bodies are 65% water that the full moon would cause an internal shift in much the same way it changes the tides. More recently, some have suggested that the increased light from a full moon may affect the circadian rhythm. However, no one had found conclusive evidence for either theory.
 Posted 5325 day ago
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