Datafile Name: Friday the 13th
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:
  1. Dataset: Identifies source dataset (traffic, shopping, or accident)
  2. Dates: year and month in which the Friday the 13th occurred
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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