Soft science wise I've observed it. It's a combination of the Dunning Krueger effect and Propaganda. I've nicknamed it the Pokemon Fight effect. Everyone chooses their own expert and then quotes the three or four things taught to them. So, Neil Degrasse Tyson said that global warming is real, and he is an expert, therefore it must be real and for the reasons he gave. If the expert changes their reasons, so does everyone who follows them.

Add in media in general and a constant flow of subjects that you can't be an exact expert on every time. Then social pressure to follow. Everyone starts to use their Pokemon experts and think they have independent thoughts.

I expect it to work like religions arguing with each other. When I taught at a university in Utah I had friends who served missions. They said people would argue with them with the exact same ideas over and over again. Ironically, even after hearing this, other professors would say the same argument to me as a fact. I would then point out my own religion, and they would give me phrases I've heard hundreds of times. Some of these people are experts, and yet not.

Since much of modern propaganda is replacing religion with the ideas of the state or large organization, it wouldn't be a surprise to see that the same methods work. A full brain scan as it happens would be cool, but we would need way more advanced equipment to get that. So, if it's repeatable, and the patterns show the same, that's likely what is happening.