Buttons can make you feel empowered, even if they don't actually do anything. Image: Chizhevskaya Ekaterina / Shutterstock Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe at any time. Have you ever pressed a crosswalk button and wondered if it actually does anything? You might be onto something.  Called placebo buttons , controls that don’t do anything exist everywhere. Sometimes it’s because of accidents of history; sometimes they’re installed specifically to trick people into feeling an illusion of control. Either way, they’re hard to notice.…