Welcome to BrainStuff, a production of I Heart Radio.

Hey Brain Stuff, Lauren Volkalbaum here with a classic episode from our archives.

Superstition is a fascinating phenomenon, and it turns out that humans aren't the only animals

that have them.

I'll let former Lauren explain.

Hey brain stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

Imagine your hours into a late night poker match,

holed up in the basement of a sketchy watering hole where tensions are rising.

You know you should quit while you're ahead, but you just can't bring yourself

to leave any possible winnings on the table. The streak has gone on so long. It's like you can't

lose. Except you do. One bad card deals you a killer blow. The spell is broken and your hot hand is gone.

Unfortunately, it never existed in the first place. Researchers have taken great pains to prove that the hot hand bias is exactly that, a bias.

It's humans innate predisposition that makes us believe we see patterns, including winning or losing streaks,

where none exist, especially when preservation or gain are involved.

Now we know that monkeys have the same superstitious bias too.

Oh, and they really love to gamble. It seems we species have more in common than just the 93% of our DNA.

During a study by researchers at Clarkston University and the University of Rochester,

Reese's Monkeys played a fast-paced computer game with built-in rewards.

Correctly guessed the next step in the pattern, get a treat.

However, even when the sequence was random, the monkeys gambled like they were on a winning streak, showing a false belief

in their run of good luck.

Despite being given multiple opportunities to rehearse a different scenario, the monkeys stuck

...