I would say social media, with it's ability to unite despite geographical distance, has transformed cults into a new era. Aren't anti-vaxers a cult now as much as Mormonism. And yes. They both suffer the Dunning Kruger effect, but that effect permeates everything as long as people need desperately to be part of a special group that allows them to consider themselves elite--elitism/power, not fact or truth, being their goal.
A very wise man said this:
"I think that the vast majority of humans need to feel that they "belong" to a nice comfortable Monster-hating crowd. Because if you're carrying a torch in that crowd, you know it can't be hunting for you." ----Elder Old Dog (from a thread a while ago)
The modern cult no longer needs a leader to worship and follow. They just all have to have identical torches as they coordinate on their iPhones.
Mormonism certainly spawned more than its fair share of people who considered themselves more versed in anthropology and archeology than the experts. They were convinced they could "prove" the BoM story actually happened, evidence and experts be damned.
The "all the experts are wrong" attitude is of course the foundation of the current anti-science spasm in the world. Mormons were already trained to fit that particular paradigm.
the irony is that college educated Mormons have a reputation, deserved, IMHO, of doing well in business fields, engineering and science. Mormons have always emphasized education, even if it was just at a utilitarian level - the best way to get a good job. They considered themselves a cut above the other Christian fundies, who by and large were anti-education (unless you consider Bob Jones U "education").