My group's project this week is based on a paper that discusses the "illusion of control," the concept that people will believe that they have control over things even when they really don't, and even when they know that they don't. This definitely happens in different ways with consumer electronics. I know I have personally hit or smacked many malfunctioning electronics. It is one of the first things I try. It pretty much never changes anything, but I always feel like there is a chance I might magically fix the problem.
Another example I can think of is shopping habits. Someone might buy a small mp3 player with the belief that it will make them work out more. Someone else may purchase a digital camera to take photos of more of their lives. In the end though, these are just tools, and don't actually do anything to make you do things.
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