"Are you sure?" Request for confirmation modal usability research

1. A user is about to delete a crucial object with no undo.
2. The designer puts an "Are you sure?" modal confirmation.
3. The user says "Yeah yeah yeah do it"
4. Immediately the user regrets his/her decision and panics.

Clearly Undo would be great. But sometimes that is impractical.

Question:

• What public usability studies are there on this topic?
• Do users REALLY think about the question or do they just click Yes without thinking?

Thank you.