There’s a phenomenon in physics known as the Quantum Zeno Effect, in which certain systems behave differently under observation than they do when ignored. Certain radioactive elements, for example, cease decaying because they are being looked at under a microscope. The act of observing them influences what they do, freezing them in time.
Every sports fan knows this same feeling all too well, the idea that we might have some impact on the outcome of a game—however infinitesimally small—by virtue of our watching and cheering. We carry out our bizarre rituals of superstition, certain that without them, our team is doomed; we scream at the TV as though heard by the people miles away through the roar of the crowd that surrounds them.