A pattern-seeking brain is prone to getting fooled by random rewards that only appear linked with behavior; attempting to find structure in intermittent reinforcement can get us stuck looking for an order that doesn’t exist. In fact, like many compulsive gamblers, Skinner’s first intermittently reinforced pigeons even developed “superstitions”—behaviors like spinning around or other particular motions that they associated with times when food rewards had actually been delivered. These actions didn’t make the random rewards any more likely, of course—but like a gambler’s lucky charm, they
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The cynical part of me asks if this is view impacts our understanding of prayer
