"I think the button sends a message to somewhere that says that I'm standing there," one man said. "and it'll expedite the time period while I wait."

"I don't think I've ever pushed the button," another New Yorker said.

If it seems like it doesn't work, that's because it doesn't.

"It seems a bit ridiculous actually," one woman said. "What are you supposed to do to cross the street?"

The Department of Transportation says pedestrian crosswalk buttons like were once critical to managing traffic patterns.

But for the past few decades, stoplights at almost all intersections in the city have been computer-controlled. And whether pedestrians know it or not, the buttons left behind are mostly non-operational.

"I feel deceived, so deceived," one man said, smiling.

"That's a tragedy," another said at a crosswalk. "I've been standing there for nothing."

Newer crosswalk buttons these feature sound and vibration signals. They're there to assist the visually impaired. But pressing them won't make the light change any faster.

And it's not just crosswalks. Pushing the "close door" button on most elevators is often a similar exercise in futility.

"It's not going to close the door. You can press it as many times as you want," said Jeffrey Blain, the engineering manager at Schindler Elevator Corporation. "Other than giving you something to do, it's not going to serve any function in those cases.

"The Americans with Disabilities Act specifies that doors have to be held open to give people a chance to get into the elevator. That overrides everything," Blain said. "You're not really allowed to close the door sooner than that, regardless of whether someone's pushing the 'Door Close' button or not."

"By pushing that button, it's almost a catharsis, where they're letting that nervous energy out," Psychologist Dr. Jeff Gardere said.

Gardere says time spent pushing a "Nothin' Button" doesn't have to be time wasted.

"They believe that perhaps they're doing something," Gardere said. "So it may in fact de-stress them, where they feel actually better, they feel some sort of empowerment. "

"The button — just to put my little finger in that thing and push it — it makes me feel so much better; that I'm in control of something out here in this monstrosity," one New Yorker said.

"Let 'em push," Blain said. "They're impatient. I don't want to tell them that, you know, 'Your efforts are futile.'"

"We are affected by the Placebo Effect, whether we know it or not," Gardere said.

That Placebo Effect plays out in many office thermostats, too. Here at the NY1 studio, only our maintenance staff can control the temperature.

But you might think the room is cooler or warmer if you're able to turn the dial.