Orson Scott Card uses this dynamic in the later Ender's Game books.

Right, I'd take it as a statement on how humans actually think, not how a perfect rationalist thinks. Or maybe how most humans think since humans can be unattached to their beliefs.

I used to do that a lot. I still have to fight the urge to save repeatedly when nothing has changed.

My obsessive compulsions are mostly mental though so it has had so little an impact on my interactions with others that I don't think it counts as a disorder.

Awesome. I tried doing that when I was a child but naturally failed.