My sense is that the two are related. I'm a very skeptical person, and the amount of learning I had to do before any of this seemed not completely idiotic was astounding. If it takes, say, ten hours of labor before that happens, then it's not surprising at all that most people's opinions are what they are. If it takes more than ten (which it did for me) then even more so.

That's such an ingrained human tendency that I don't fault you for disliking people over it. I've certainly complained about it in other contexts.

For the most part, we aren't reasoning creatures. We're rationalizing creatures. We recognize that a view might be socially acceptable and we adopt a rationalization for believing it.