Suppose you and I and a few others are playing poker. I’m dealing – badly. As I come round to you I miss out the player on your right before dealing you a card and, rather than gathering up all the cards and reshuffling as etiquette dictates, I simply throw him the next card and continue dealing. Would you care that you now have his card while he has yours? Are you already attached to “your” card even though you don’t know how good it is?

Considered in the abstract, most people know that it doesn't matter what order the cards are dealt. But a number of experiments conducted by Ellen Langer, a prominent social psychologist and a professor at Harvard University, showed that, in reality, most people care as passionately about processes as outcomes.