Holding expectations

The ring tone means someone's about to pick up. That's the whole point of the ring tone. If you're holding and you hear a ring tone, you've been conditioned through a life of phone use to think "Oh! Someone's about to pick up. I should take this call off of speaker and wait attentively, so as not to waste their time!"

I've been on hold for ages now. I still jump every time there's a ring followed by "Please stay on the line."

At least they're not feeding me the line about my call being valued.

I just jumped again and then got the message. I'm Pavlov's customer.