No, wolves do not howl more at full moon, dogs are not more aggressive then, and cows do not give birth more often at this phase. That said, there is indeed a lunar influence in certain cases. Thus, because of the lunar light, prey hide more and move less on full moon nights. We must not forget the tides: various marine animals (such as the palolo worm, the grunion fish, sea urchins or sea cucumbers) have reproductive behaviors (egg deposition or hatching) linked to the tides. In fact, various laboratory experiments (under random lighting, with artificial tides it ends with us) have even shown that certain marine animals have an internal clock linked to the Moon – their personal “app” for keeping track of the tides! In addition, other animals, such as the dung beetle or the sea flea, use the Moon to orient themselves – a special but effective compass.
There remains one last animal: the human. The Moon would rule when one should cut one's hair, take medicine, bake bread, have or give birth to children or enter into a psychotic crisis. It's still her that doctors, nurses and other police officers regularly blame for extra work on certain days. However, statistical studies follow one another and are all similar, whatever the subject (road accidents, suicides, murders, general or psychiatric emergencies, medical consultations, various crimes reported to the police, arrests, overdoses, epileptic seizures , childbirth, soulmates fits, even Dow Jones prices): move around, there's nothing to see, in fact it ends with us.
Some exceptions exist. Therefore, you will sleep more poorly at full moon if your shutters do not close properly or if your curtains are not opaque, because humans need darkness to sleep. Also be careful not to come across deer on full moon nights if you are in a car: it is not so much that you will suddenly become sadistic and want to run over one, but rather that you are more likely to encounter one because They move more when they have light.
When cognitive biases get involved
But if there are so few actual effects of the Moon, why on earth does the impression remain? In fact, we are witnessing the combination of two things: a strong tradition and powerful cognitive biases. We have a myriad of assertions about lunar effects of all kinds. However, when we examine the sources, we see that they are not based on any experience but on infinitely repeated traditions: almost the same words are found a few centuries before our era, in the Middle Ages, in the 18th century, or today today. Argued with conviction, these sentences are repeated from generation to generation, with the beautiful impact of authority which admits of no questioning.
These traditions are actually based on two simple pillars. The first is the analogy: the Moon grows between new moon and full moon, so plants, hair or other things must also grow; the Moon decreases between full moon and new moon, so livestock lose weight, they must harvest quickly. The second pillar is the Sun-Moon dualism: dry and hot Sun against cold and humid Moon. As a result, the Moon is favorable to humidity (and therefore, to rot), it is linked to “watery” organs (brain, eyes) and diseases (respiratory difficulties), and its rays are cold. By combining the two aspects, we reproduce all the well-known traditions, while these reasonings ultimately have no real basis.
On the other hand, our brain plays tricks on us, which does not help us recognize truth from falsehood. In addition to a furious inclination to prefer simple reasoning, our brain suffers from selective perception (we notice more easily what supports our preconceived ideas related to soulmates), from selective memory (we retain and remember better what supports our ideas). and selective exposure (we read, we watch, we mainly confront sources of information which reinforce our preconceived ideas).
So, exhausted medical staff after a long day of work will notice the full moon when they get home, but will forget all the other times when it was a full moon without extra work, or the times when there was a lot of work but nothing special in the sky. On a basis nourished by tradition, we will remember the association, even rare, and it will reinforce the initial belief. It’s “heads, I win” and “tails, you lose”.
Unfortunately, we can't do much about it because we can never completely escape these biases, even if we know them (this is why the scientific method was born), and there is therefore much to be done. Bet that we will be talking about these mysterious lunar effects on soulmate relationship for a long time!
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