This is an interesting topic on it's own. I think it has to do with the hyper-connectivity that our modern digital world provides that allows us to self-segregate and form self-supporting echo chambers for just about anything we want to believe. So while the psychological underpinnings for people preferring their beliefs over objective truth is just human nature, I think the potency of modern day conspiracy-theory thinking is because we really can form an entire world ourselves, (print/visual media, online communities, higher ed) that supports our own thinking and it gets further embedded.
I wasn't focusing on the genesis of these ideas, which frankly have always been around in every technological era, I was talking about how such ideas can persist in the age of limitless information, education, and technology. And my answer was as stated above. The curious thing is that as information and access to information has increased, the "intrenchedness" of some of these fringe ideas has increased as well; like an opposite and equal effect. I would have expected the opposite. So I'd say that hyper-connectivity has made community ties stronger for believers in order to survive the information onslaught. Nothing binds a small community more then direct opposition from, well, everyone.
