Datafile Name: Friday the 13th Datafile Subjects: Sociology Story Names: Friday the 13th Reference: Scanlon, T.J., Luben, R.N., Scanlon, F.L., Singleton, N. (1993), "Is Friday the 13th Bad For Your Health?," BMJ, 307, 1584-1586. Authorization: Contact authors Description: This file consists of three separate datasets, all of which address the issues of how superstitions regarding Friday the 13th affect human behavior, and whether Friday the 13th is an unlucky day. Scanlon, et al. collected data on traffic and shopping patterns and accident frequency for Fridays the 6th and 13th between October of 1989 and November of 1992. For the first dataset, the researchers obtained information from the British Department of Transport regarding the traffic flows between junctions 7 to 8 and junctions 9 to 10 of the M25 motorway. They collected the numbers of shoppers in nine different supermarkets in southeast England for the second dataset. The third dataset contains numbers of emergency admissions to hospitals due to transport accidents. We present the three datasets in a combined format, with the variable "Dataset" as an identifier that may be used to separate them. Number of cases: 61 Variable Names: Dataset: Identifies source dataset (traffic, shopping, or accident) Dates: year and month in which the Friday the 13th occurred 6th: Number of cars passing through junction (traffic dataset), shoppers for each supermarket (shopping dataset), or admissions due to transport accidents (accident dataset) on Friday the 6th 13th: Number of cars passing through junction (traffic dataset), shoppers for each supermarket (shopping dataset), or admissions due to transport accidents (accident dataset) on Friday the 13th Location: Motorway junction (traffic dataset), supermarket location (shopping dataset) or hospital (accident dataset) to which the data correspond The Data: Dataset Dates 6th 13th Location traffic 1990 July 139246 138548 7 to 8 traffic 1990 July 134012 132908 9 to 10 traffic 1991 September 137055 136018 7 to 8 traffic 1991 September 133732 131843 9 to 10 traffic 1991 December 123552 121641 7 to 8 traffic 1991 December 121139 118723 9 to 10 traffic 1992 March 128293 125532 7 to 8 traffic 1992 March 124631 120249 9 to 10 traffic 1992 November 124609 122770 7 to 8 traffic 1992 November 117584 117263 9 to 10 shopping 1990 July 4942 4882 Epsom shopping 1991 September 4895 4736 Epsom shopping 1991 December 4805 4784 Epsom shopping 1992 March 4570 4603 Epsom shopping 1992 November 4506 4629 Epsom shopping 1990 July 6754 6998 Guildford shopping 1991 September 6704 6707 Guildford shopping 1991 December 5871 5662 Guildford shopping 1992 March 6026 6162 Guildford shopping 1992 November 5676 5665 Guildford shopping 1990 July 3685 3848 Dorking shopping 1991 September 3799 3680 Dorking shopping 1991 December 3563 3554 Dorking shopping 1992 March 3673 3676 Dorking shopping 1992 November 3558 3613 Dorking shopping 1990 July 5751 5993 Chichester shopping 1991 September 5367 5320 Chichester shopping 1991 December 4949 4960 Chichester shopping 1992 March 5298 5467 Chichester shopping 1992 November 5199 5092 Chichester shopping 1990 July 4141 4389 Horsham shopping 1991 September 3674 3660 Horsham shopping 1991 December 3707 3822 Horsham shopping 1992 March 3633 3730 Horsham shopping 1992 November 3688 3615 Horsham shopping 1990 July 4266 4532 East Grinstead shopping 1991 September 3954 3964 East Grinstead shopping 1991 December 4028 3926 East Grinstead shopping 1992 March 3689 3692 East Grinstead shopping 1992 November 3920 3853 East Grinstead shopping 1990 July 7138 6836 Lewisham shopping 1991 September 6568 6363 Lewisham shopping 1991 December 6514 6555 Lewisham shopping 1992 March 6115 6412 Lewisham shopping 1992 November 5325 6099 Lewisham shopping 1990 July 6502 6648 Nine Elms shopping 1991 September 6416 6398 Nine Elms shopping 1991 December 6422 6503 Nine Elms shopping 1992 March 6748 6716 Nine Elms shopping 1992 November 7023 7057 Nine Elms shopping 1990 July 4083 4277 Crystal Palace shopping 1991 September 4107 4334 Crystal Palace shopping 1991 December 4168 4050 Crystal Palace shopping 1992 March 4174 4198 Crystal Palace shopping 1992 November 4079 4105 Crystal Palace accident 1989 October 9 13 SWTRHA hospital accident 1990 July 6 12 SWTRHA hospital accident 1991 September 11 14 SWTRHA hospital accident 1991 December 11 10 SWTRHA hospital accident 1992 March 3 4 SWTRHA hospital accident 1992 November 5 12 SWTRHA hospital