Myths About the Full Moon
There is a common belief that the light of the full moon causes bad luck, strange occurrences, and odd behavior. Many believe that the full moon is responsible for unusual events; and, curiously, a large portion of the U.S. population also claims that the full moon promotes (or, in some cases, directly causes) people to act strangely (often referred to as the ‘lunar effect’). These strange, bizarre, and clearly baseless beliefs about the supposed ‘effects’ of the full moon are still widely accepted.
One can’t help but ask: Why do people still believe in the ‘power’ of the full moon? Despite numerous studies debunking the notion that the full moon has any influence on someone’s fortune or events, and much less on human
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Originally, the one individual that believed in the phenomenon claimed that there was substantial evidence supporting the idea; but after questioning them intently they quickly recanted, resorting to personal anecdotes to support the idea. The individual then explained that on, on several occasions, they had experienced ‘bad luck’ during a full moon, even noting that on one such occasion the light of the full moon caused one of her young friends to behave strangely (though it was never explained to me what ‘strangely’ meant). However, the more I questioned the individual (and making them aware that most of their ‘evidence’ was only the result of illusory correlations they had made), the less the individual being questioned seemed to believe herself. The other two individuals I questioned (my parents, actually) immediately dismissed the idea that the full moon has any real effect on what happens. The most common response I got was: “Well, that just doesn’t make sense”. My parents relied on their common sense to decide whether or not the claim was valid; and in this case, they were right. My mother then went on to say that “Weird things happen all the time, so how can the full moon affect it?” Again, this reinforces the idea that you only notice ‘the moon’s effects’ when you’re looking for