TORONTO — We’ve all done it: We’ve had a series of strange things happen to us and ask ourselves, “Is it a full moon or something?”
But the truth is, it’s not the moon making our day weird.
Sure, the moon does have its influence on our planet, such as on the tides, but when it comes to our moods or strange occurrences, a new study says that we really ought to stop blaming our celestial companion.
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The moon has been blamed for such things as depression, car accidents, cancer survival rates, depression, violent behaviour and birth rates among other things.
“Dozens of studies show that the belief is unfounded,” said the author of the study Jean-Luc Margot, a University of California, Los Angeles professor of planetary astronomy.
The debate over the moon’s influence has gone on for a long time. You can find numerous scientific papers — with varying results — if you look.
In 2004, though, a study suggested that the full moon influenced the number of admissions in a hospital in Barcelona, Spain. However, Margot reanalyzed that same data and found that there were “multiple flaws” in the collection. Instead, he said that the admissions had nothing to do with the moon.
“The moon is innocent,” he said.
Margot said that the reason we tend to blame the moon is due to something called confirmation bias. Let’s say you’ve had a weird day. You look to see if there’s a full moon and there is one. So you confirm that it must be weird because of the full moon. But what about days when it’s a new moon or a gibbous moon? We forget those days, Margot believes.
This isn’t the first time this moon myth has been debunked. In 1985 a team of scientists analyzed 37 research papers that tried to link the moon to human behaviour. Though they found some papers that supported a link, they too found errors in the research. In the end, the found no correlation between the full moon and human behaviour.
And just in case you’re wondering: the full moon is this Saturday, complete with an eclipse.
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