Writer's Block: Full Moon Fever

[author_by_night]

[Error: unknown template qotd] I think it could make some scientific sense for our behavior to be affected  - the pull of the moon and all that. On the other hand,  I really don't think it makes people insane, or turn into werewolves - some of that is probably psychological. But it does seem that you hear of things happening on Full Moons. So I'm not sure.

Do any of you have thoughts on this?

Comments

[gileonnen.livejournal.com]

On a vaguely related note ...

[stubefied-by-gd.livejournal.com]

I think it is more reasonable to believe in the full moon having a (modest) effect on behavior than in astrology. The moon does undoubtedly influence things on earth, like the tides, and monthly cycles. And our bodies do have a lot of water in them!

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

This is a myth, and it's an myth precisely because of this vaguely scientific-sounding "explanation" - the moon exerts gravity! It causes tides! That could, like, affect us, right?

Um, not really. Tides occur because of the sheer amount of water in the oceans and because of water's motility (note: the moon is still exerting a gravitational force on land, land is just harder to move). Your mass is a lot less than that of the oceans. There's consequently a lot less force, and the *variation* in that force is tiny. Remember, gravitational force is *squared*. An object twice as far away from you has 4 times less gravitational pull on you. The moon is about 400,000 kilometres away - so it's not actually exerting that much force at all. The sun is exerting much, much more, because it's so much bigger - that's why we orbit the sun! Do you believe that people's behaviour changes between perihelion and aphelion? By this supposed mechanism, it would make much more sense.

Basically, this is bunk. So there's an infintesimally larger amount of pull exterted on you by the moon at some points - *how* does that affect your behaviour? I'm serious - how? The key thing to remember is that extensive studies into this supposed phenomenon have revealed no variation in behaviour with lunar cycles. There's just no evidence for it. When you've got no mechanism as well - that's pretty much the definition of a myth.

Oh, and the menstrual cycle? It's a coincidence. It's not even true for all women, although a lot of people accept it as the norm nowdays because of the prevalence of the Pill. The moon has zero to do with it.

[stubefied-by-gd.livejournal.com]

Yikes! I think you did not realize that me calling something more reasonable to believe in than astrology is like me calling something more reasonable to believe in than palm reading. Or voodoo. Or talking horses.

That said, your argument against has a number of faults. I started typing them out, but, as I don't actually have passionate beliefs about the moon either way, I'm not going to get into it.

[(Anonymous)]

Fair enough - none of that was particularly directed at you, I just tend to overreact when I see people making accepting noises about stuff on the basis of science when the actual science backs up said stuff in no way whatsoever. (I would be prepared to accept behavioural changes on the basis of light levels, say, because that's a direct, measurable effect with several possible mechanisms; it's just the gravity stuff that makes me go gah.)

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

...aaaand that was me, for I am unobservant, and on a different computer.

[psychic-serpent.livejournal.com]

As far as I know the influence is indirect. The moon influences the tides, definitely, and the tides affect the weather and air pressure; air pressure and weather, in turn, affect humans. It's trickle-down. My OB-GYN is convinced, for instance, that a change in air pressure is what caused my water to break when I had my son; he was five days early and not really ready, whereas my daughter was five days late and came in the usual manner, rather than my water breaking first. He probably should have been five days late, too, so he was really TEN days early, when you think about it. All because of the effect the moon had on tides and weather and air pressure.

But even though there's some small affect on us due to weather and air pressure, I think a lot of the "influence" on humans is because of our being highly suggestive, or just wanting to do certain things during a full moon because it's brighter at night, etc. For instance, the idea that there's more crime during full moons may just be because criminals find it easier to function at night when it's brighter; it's a practical thing. If more babies are conceived during the full moon (and I'm not sure this is anything other than folklore) it might be because, culturally, we associate the full moon with romance and when people are feeling romantic because of a big full moon (due to cultural associations rather than any mysterious "influence") they're more likely to engage in activity that will result in babies. :D

It would be interesting to take people who had no knowledge of what phase the moon was in, tell them erroneous information about the phase, and ask them questions about how they're feeling at the moment. I'd guess that a lot of people who are simply TOLD the moon is full will answer questions about how they feel with the assumption that the moon phase affects that, so they may respond as if they are going through a little "moon madness", even without that being the current moon-phase. I think that what the full moon mostly shows is that humans are highly-suggestible.

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

Makes a lot of sense that there's probably a psychological effect - humans attach so much importance to the moon and its cycles that it would be really surprising if they weren't influenced by all the stories that float around about the full moon.

I'm curious about the tides and air pressure/weather, though - how much difference do the tides make to weather patterns? It doesn't seem like it could be a lot, but meteorology is a black art to me, so.