Lunar Influences on Human Aggression

Russell, Gordon W.; Dua, Manjula

doi:10.2224/sbp.1983.11.2.41

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…************************************ Speaking Tangentially 8.3: The Moon Made Me Do It! Among a sample of Canadian university students, approximately 64%, men and women alike, believe the full moon influences human behavior (Russell & Dua, 1983). A truly astonishing array of behaviors has at one time or another been attributed to lunar cycles, including births, deaths, sexual power, epilepsy, somnabulism, pyromania, alcoholism, mental illness, accidents, suicides, and aggression.…”

Section: Ionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Social Psychology of Sport

Russell¹

1993

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Section: Ionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sports have on two occasions (Russell & deGraaf, 1985;Russell & Dua, 1983) provided an alternative to the common practice of using homicide rates in testing the merits of a lunar-aggression hypothesis. In these studies, aggressive penalties in ice hockey (e.g., fighting, charging, etc.…”

Section: Ionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social Psychology of Sport

Russell¹

1993

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“…There are several reasons to hypothesize that lunar cycles may influence crime, either due to direct effects on human behavior or as a factor influencing rational offenders. First and foremost, though not directly tested in this study, research has shown that belief in lunar effects continued to be strong (Russell & Dua, 1983), including among police officers (Rotton & Kelly, 1985;Rotton et al, 1986;Vance, 1995) and tended to be associated with beliefs in other paranormal phenomena (Rotton & Kelly, 1985). Officers have the benefit of directly observing the aftermath of criminal incidents; their experiences may provide them with unique insights into lunar effects, or police culture may simply perpetuate false beliefs about lunar effects.…”

Section: Lunar Effects On Crimementioning

confidence: 81%

“…This included failing to find effects on: aggressive acts in prisons (Atlas, 1984;Simon, 1998) and psychiatric facilities (Durm et al, 1986;Quinsey & Varney, 1977), prison escapes (Pettigrew, 1985), use of hospital psychiatric services (Bauer & Hornick, 1968;Shapiro, Streiner, Gray, Williams, & Soble, 1970;Walters, Markley, & Tiffany, 1975), incidents of suicide (Biermann et al, 2005), use of telephone crisis centers (Wilson & Tobacyk, 1990), hospital admissions for dog bite injuries (Chapman & Morrell, 2000), aggression among ice hockey players (Russell & de Graaf, 1985;Russell & Dua, 1983), demands for police and fire services (Bickis et al, 1995;Frey, Rotton, & Barry, 1979), automobile accidents (Campbell & Beets, 1978;Laverty & Kelly, 1998), suicide (Lester, Brockopp, & Priebe, 1969), and homicide (Pokorny & Jachimczyk, 1974). Studies often achieved contradictory results on crime-related outcomes, particularly calls for policing service and homicides.…”

Section: Studies Of Lunar Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bad moon on the rise? Lunar cycles and incidents of crime

Schafer

Varano

Jarvis

et al. 2010

Journal of Criminal Justice

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a b s t r a c tPopular cultures in Western societies have long espoused the notion that phases of the moon influence human behavior. In particular, there is a common belief the full moon increases incidents of aberrant, deviant, and criminal behavior. Using police, astronomical, and weather data from a major southwestern American city, this study assessed whether lunar cycles related with rates of reported crime. The findings fail to support popular lore, which has suggested that lunar phase influenced the volume of crime reported to the police. Future research directions examining qualitative rather than quantitative aspects of this problem may yield further inform the understanding of whether lunar cycles appreciably influence demands for policing services.

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“…In another study of psychiatric personnel, Angus (1974) found that approximately 74% (64 out of 86) of nurses indicated that they believed that the moon had an effect upon mental illness. In a more recent study, Russell and Dua (1983) found that 45% of 402 students taking introductory psychology at a Canadian university endorsed an item indicative of general belief in lunar influences. Similar levels of belief have been documented among students at another Canadian university and in Singapore (Otis & Kuo, 1984).…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

A Scale for Assessing Belief in Lunar Effects: Reliability and Concurrent Validity

Rotton

Kelly

1985

Psychol Rep

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Normative, reliability, and validity data for a short (9-item) scale that assesses belief in lunar effects are presented. As hypothesized, scores on this scale were correlated with those on instruments measuring belief in paranormal phenomena. It is suggested that the construct validity of belief in paranormal phenomena can be improved by including this brief scale in research on superstitious behavior.It is not at all unusual for investigators to justify research on lunar cycles and abnormal behavior by suggesting that many people believe that a full moon affects behavior. More than one author has argued that there must be a "kernel of t r u t h in belief that a supposedly large number of people hold.Yet, surprisingly little is known about the extent and depth of lunar beliefs.Dingman, Cleland, and Swartz (1970) found that about 4% of the attendants in mental institutions spontaneously mentioned the fun moon as a cause of abberant behavior. In another study of psychiatric personnel, Angus (1974) found that approximately 74% (64 out of 86) of nurses indicated that they believed that the moon had an effect upon mental illness. In a more recent study, Russell and Dua (1983) found that 45% of 402 students taking introductory psychology at a Canadian university endorsed an item indicative of general belief in lunar influences. Similar levels of belief have been documented among students at another Canadian university and in Singapore (Otis & Kuo, 1984). Finally, Jorgenson (1981) obtained a number of positive correlations berween locus of control and willingness to attribute emotional states to lunar cycles. As might be expected, individuals with an external locus of control were more willing to attribute their own and other people's emotional states to a full moon than those with an internal locus of control.Although several scales have been developed to assess belief in occult and paranormal phenomena, none of them include items that measure belief in lunar influences. However, lunar beliefs share much in common with astrology and other paranormal phenomena. Mosc definitions of the paranormal refer to phenomena which "cannot be explained in terms of presently accepted theories of nature because they violate one or more of the basic assumptions, or axioms, of the current scientific worldview" (Alcock, 1981, p. 3 ) . The idea ,that phases of che moon influence behavior violates one of the basic limiting principles of science: behavior or "mind can only be directly 'Requests for reprints should be sent to James Rotton, Psychology Department, Florida International University, North Miami, FL 33181.

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Lunar Influences on Human Aggression

Cited by 11 publications

References 4 publications

The Social Psychology of Sport

The Social Psychology of Sport

Bad moon on the rise? Lunar cycles and incidents of crime

A Scale for Assessing Belief in Lunar Effects: Reliability and Concurrent Validity

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