Our whole lives consist of rationalizing after-the-fact what we observe ourselves to be doing.

And rationalizing because we actually have no idea why we are doing it.

There are also two other things at play. Media hype over small scientific announcements that need more study[0], and misrepresentation of scientific findings by researchers or their sponsoring party (e.g. a university's PR department).

[0]: https://xkcd.com/882/