Assessing Belief in Lunar Effects: Known-Groups Validation

Abstract

It was hypothesized that police officers and psychiatric professionals would endorse more items indicative of belief in lunar effects than members of the general public. This hypothesis was tested by having 36 psychiatric personnel, 33 police officers, and 60 pedestrians indicate agreement with each of the 9 items on the Belief in Lunar Effects (BILE) scale. Results provided partial confirmation of this hypothesis. Police officers evidenced more belief in lunar effects than either psychiatric personnel or pedestrians, whose degree of belief did not differ.