This is the root of 'pigeon religions'. Someone sees a string of events and infers a causal link between them and an outcome. Confirmation bias kicks in and they notice when this string of events occurs again, which is made more likely by the fact that the events in the string are largely the person's own actions which they believe the events will produce the desired outcome. They tell their friends and soon a whole group of people believe that doing those things is necessary to produce that outcome.
That's how you get things like equipment operators insisting that you have to adjust the seat before the boot will open.