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Prepare a brief report on your exercise experience, with a focus on how the participants demonstrated an appreciation (or lack of appreciation) for science. How many of your three respondents had each of the three possible categories of belief about this question? What were the key reasons why they held their views? Was it because others had told them this or because they had witnessed it or what? How were they influenced by the review of Exhibit 1.2?

Exhibit 1.2 A Brief Review of the Literature on the Full Moon and Unusual Behavior

In a research textbook by York (1997), a brief review of the literature on the full moon and behavior was undertaken. York employed a library database to find scientific studies on this question. He decided to review the first five articles he could find that reported scientific studies of behavior during the full moon and when the moon was not full. He used search words such as full moon and reviewed the first five articles that reported a scientific study of the relationship between the full moon and behavior. He did not engage in the selective review of only those studies with a certain result, such as a finding that there was a relationship between the full moon and human behavior. He realized that such a procedure would not be consistent with the nature of scientific inquiry. Here are the results of the first five sources he found.

1 Mathew et al. (1991) reviewed suicide attempts reported to a hospital. He found that the suicide attempts during the full moon were slightly more than on other days of the month but the amount of difference was not statistically significant (i.e., it could easily be explained by chance).

2 A study by Durm et al. (1986) found that the incidence of dangerous behaviors exhibited by patients in a psychiatric hospital was actually higher when the moon was not full than when it was but this difference was not statistically significant.

3 A pair of researchers reviewed 12 studies that examined the relationship between the full moon and things such as crisis calls to police stations, poison centers, and crisis intervention centers. Their conclusion from this review was that “there is no evidence whatsoever for the contention that calls of a more emotional or ‘out-of-control’ nature occur more often at the full moon” (Byrnes & Kelly, 1992, p. 779).

4 Another review of many studies was undertaken by Rotten and Kelly (1985). A total of 37 published studies were included in their review. They concluded that there was little evidence to support the theory that the full moon affects people’s behavior.

5 A study was conducted by Hicks-Casey and Potter (1991). They found that there were more aggressive acting-out misbehaviors in a sample of 20 developmentally delayed women during the full moon than at other times. This was the only study with results suggesting that there was a relationship between the full moon and unusual behavior.

York (2018) reviewed these findings and concluded that the evidence clearly showed that the full moon was not related to unusual behavior. A total of 51 studies, from the five articles, had been found that failed to show a relationship between the full moon and unusual behaviors. Only 1 study was found that showed this relationship. The evidence was so overwhelming that York felt that he did not need to engage in further review of the literature unless he was undertaking a study of his own regarding this question. This was enough evidence for him for the time being.