#8: Sociological Research Debunking the Myths
A sociologist at the University of Delaware, Joel Best, has been studying the “Halloween sadism” myth since 1985. He wanted to find out how many of these scary stories were actually true. After years of research, he concluded that there has never been a single confirmed case of a stranger murdering a child with poisoned Halloween candy. The few deaths that were initially blamed on random tampering were later found to have other causes, including one tragic case where a father poisoned his own son. Best found that the majority of reports about tampered candy were just hoaxes, often started by kids themselves for attention.
