The myth of the lunatic: correlation between deaths due to aggression and lunar phases in Mexico

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to prove if there is any correlation between the full moon and the rise in intentional homicides as well as suicides, just as is often assumed by popular belief. To achieve this, we acquired data bases with statistics about total deaths in Mexico from ten different years (2012-2021), the data was filtered obtaining the number of deaths due to aggression (homicides) and suicides that took place on the days of full moon and in the days of new moon (days without
visible moon) for each of the 10 years. The averages of the deaths due to aggression (homicides) and suicides from the days with a full moon and the days with a new moon were obtained and compared with each other and with the average of the total number of intentional homicides and
suicides committed and registered each year. Lastly, statistical tests were performed to demonstrate if there is or there is not a significant statistical difference between the means of the groups of data. It is concluded that the differences between the means of the groups ‘full moon’
and ‘new moon’ for each year of study and for the full time period of the study (2012-2021) are not statistically significant and the null hypothesis is accepted.