there are now many full-length books that focus on this deep/complex question about human nature/psychology & note there is some newer/ongoing/active research in the area, some of it cited in them.
Why people believe weird things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Shermer/Gould
but, some counterpoint, the reverse/flip side. science is a complex evolving and at-times-subtle field in a way that was not fully recognized largely until the research in Kuhnian shifts.