Heh exactly association and superstition can go hand in hand.

Like for example...

There was an experiment with birds...well I wont get into the full details but he made an "association" which was "superstitious."

First there actually was an action that allowed food to drop (pressing a specific button out of the choice of three buttons).
Then they turned of the buttons and made it random drops of food.
The bird looked over his shoulder and then food came out. Then he looked over his should and food came out again, so the bird continued to look over his shoulder.

He had made an association between looking over his should and food coming out, however the superstition was the belief that when he looked over his shoulder food would come.