Does a full moon affect human behavior?

Remy's answer is actually pretty good.

There isn't any real significant effect on human behavior based on lunar phases. The little bit of data (and it is very miniscule) that does correlate Full Moons to human behavior is more or less incidental. A by product of the real effects of a Full Moon.

When the Moon is full, it is brighter than it is at any other time during the month. This will affect sleep patterns. People will psychologically not think it is late as it is, and stay awake later, walk around under the 'safety' of the moonlight, etc. The small increase in accidents on and near Full Moon mights can easilly be atributed to fatigued drivers, because they stayed up later.

Crime does not appear to increase, but in rural areas in particular (where there aren't as many artificial lights on at night) arrest percentages go up slightly. This could easily be accounted for by the fact that a criminal is easier to spot under moonlight, than in complete darkness.

It is intersting, however. If you interview hospital workers and police officers, the vast majority will tell you that "Full Moon = weird nights," but you look at the data, hospital admissions, reported crimes, and the data isn't there to support these claims... a classic example of the confirmation bias:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

Full Moon Behavior

No. The Moon looks full for several days in a row so people assume that more births, accidents and other stuff happen on a full Moon. Well if the Moon looks full for 3 or 4 days in a row yeah there are more births than in one day that the Moon is actually full.

Then there is the self fulfilling prophecy that if you think weird things happen on a full Moon, then you will notice weird things happening on a full Moon

the tale has its origins back in the days before cities and towns were lit with electric lighting and travelling at night was quite difficult so the only source of light at night was a full moon (i would imagine its rather difficult and dangerous to ride a bicycle or a horse in complete darkness) many people would have limited opportunities to go anywhere after dark so when a full moon came up lots of people would go out and socialize and party,etc. so there would be many more drunks and fights, accidents, etc., these days peoples behaviour is affected mostly by the calendar or the economy,look at any bar,nightclub,restaurant,etc. they will have the most activity on friday or saturday nights,or on holidays like new years eve,and the least activity early in the week or when the economy is in recession,so naturally the most incidents,like traffic accidents,fights,assaults happen when people are out interacting with others and not sitting at home watching tv,nothing to do with the phase of the moon but more likely how long is the queue at the bar or how congested is the traffic.

I did a science project on this once. I recall that death rates are the same as on non-full moon days, births and accidents are only very slightly higher. I do know that I usually have trouble sleeping during a full moon. I don't usually realize it is a full moon until I've tossed and turned all night, then happen to glance at the calender the next morning.

It was a very old theory in the medieval times, it said that a full moon can turn people into werewolves but it's not true. The thing that happened in your place is probably just a coincidence.

Yes. I hate Full Moon.

People may consciously or subconsciously know it’s the full moon and their behavior might be changed depending on how much importance they give it. That’s probably it.

well no. we arent werewolves or anything like that.

i dont think humans should act in a different way when theres a full moon, why should we? ;-)

Some weird stuff here on wiki and I have heard a few other times about this stuff being studied and correlations being established

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_effect