I heard this story several years ago. I’m not sure how true the account is, but it might add some understanding to superstition.
It seems a certain research facility had a population of chimpanzees under study. The researchers hung a bunch of bananas from a string just above the reach of the chimps. A short distance away from the bananas there was a chair. It didn’t take the chimps long to figure out the chair could be moved and used to reach the bananas. When one individual achieved this, and a banana was seized, then all of the chimps in the enclosure were sprayed down with water. This happened several times until the chimps would prevent any individual from climbing the chair.
Occasionally, during the study, a chimp was rotated out of the population, and replaced with another individual. Invariably, the new chimp would see the bananas (which were replaced regularly with a fresh bunch) and try to climb the chair. The other chimps would prevent the new individual from climbing the chair. Eventually the time came that there were none of the original individuals in the population, and there had been no spray for some time. Even though they did not know they would be sprayed, they knew they should prevent any others from climbing on the chair.