don't push my buttons...

So it's a little quirk that many people have that I'm trying to figure out where it stems from... the need to push a button more than once.

Standing at a light today waiting for the little green man to allow us to cross, I noticed the patterns of people who were pushing the buttons. There was the man who pushed constantly with aggressive force. The little girl who banged on the button ten times until her mother pushed her hand away. To even Marijn, who pretended that it was a musical instrument.

So why do people push the button so many times? Do they think that it will make the light change faster? The faster you push the button or the more times you push, it will make it go faster? Same with elevator buttons...if you ever watch the people pushing the buttons for their floor, many push it a couple of times. Does it make it go faster?

I think that this subconscious urge to press buttons more than once probably stems from the same area in the brain that makes us lower (or turn off) the car stereo when we are looking for that street address.

• although if there was push button cooking, i sure would push that button more than once!