An important experiment performed by behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner was to place a series of pigeons in individual, separate cages and feed them a food pellet every 15 seconds. The food was delivered every 15 seconds regardless of what the pigeons did. Despite this, each pigeon rapidly developed a behavioral "tic"... one rocked it's head back and forth, one spun in circles, one attacked a corner of the cage over and over again, etc. Skinner concluded that the pigeons had developed
superstitions regarding which certain behavior caused the magical delivery of food to their cage, and no apparent reality could convince them otherwise.
I believe this result may apply here.
