What do you call this behavior ?

What is it known as when people know something is a dead end and still feel the need to choose the dead end path?

For Example - you are person (b) .

- Person (a) asks where is the book ? Even they know YOU person (b) lost it but will still ask you with knowingly .

What is it called when people feel the need to constantly readdress , reassess , and it has nothing to do with forgetfulness cause they will acknowledge they knew and still wanted to ask for some strange reason.