While only an hour, daylight saving time can have a drastic effect on societal and individual behavior. We already know that the effect of daylight saving time can have negative health consequences because of the disturbance in our circadian rhythm, but what about the effect it has on societies normal functioning? The researcher behind this study, Ignacio Munyo, wanted to examine the effects that daylight saving time has on crime rates. He hypothesized that crime rates would decrease following the spring-forward daylight savings time, as the incentive to sleep would be greater than the incentive to behave criminally.
In order to study the effect of daylight savings time on criminal behavior, Munyo analyzed police records of criminal activity around the time after the spring-forward daylight savings time occurred (looking only at rates of robbery and rates of theft). He also compared crime rates when it was not daylight savings time (base levels of crime) with the levels of crime committed following the change in time. Because this was a content analysis, researchers were unable to assume causality within this research design because they did not manipulate any variables. However, with this data they analyzed correlation between daylight savings time and criminal activity.
The results of this study found that daylight savings time is strongly correlated with a reduction in criminal behavior. It is important to understand how biology affects behavior when we want to change behaviors of others, as it gives us a whole new perspective that may account for influences that would otherwise not be considered. This also suggests that crime is directly related to motivation, and the less motivated we are to commit a crime, the less likely we are to actually participate in criminal behavior. These findings have important implications for reducing crime, and will help to emphasize the role social factors play in an individual's behavior.
Source:
Munyo, I. (2018). Daylight saving time and crime: Does tiredness also affect criminal behaviour? Journal of Applied Biobehavioural Research, (23):3. https://doi.org/10.1111/jabr.12115
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