A lot of people feel the need to have a belief. When a religion fails them they look to replace it with something else. Usually another belief system.

I think it starts with a charismatic speakers with an agenda to please themselves and it expands with the followers need to make the dear leader happy.

Just look at the Trump supporters...they want someone to take care of them, and are willing to give up their free will and go through incredible contortions to remain blindfolded and to defend his every move.

Imagine that every human characteristic can be expressed in terms of a binary or a gradient, and that distribution follows a standard bell curve:

• Suggestibility: from iron-headedly unswayable to ridiculously credulous
• Imagination: from bereft to florid
• Deference to authority: from "F the man!" to "Big Brother is my hero"
• Susceptibility to charisma: from impervious to melted puddle
• Unfulfilled emotional needs: from fully stocked to raging famine
• etc.

Some of these things are related. Some of these things are not directly related, but occur together as a consequence of environmental factors or other "nurturance". I suspect that the lion's share of these attributes are largely controlled by "nature".

Through whatever alchemy, you end up with enough people on the right skinny flap-end of enough of the bell curves--enough ridiculously credulous, floridly imaginative, Big Brother-lovin', melt-before-charisma, daddy-never-loved-me emotional black hole types--and there's your cult waiting for its Jim Jones or David Koresh to hit the scene.

Just my guess.

People want to hold onto something. They are looking for a savior.

A delusioned mind is a weaker mind, fed nonsense and comforted in some way. Find the uneducated and tell them they’re special. I’m actually surprised there aren’t more cults in existence. I suppose if the big 3 didn’t exist, there probably would be.

Some folks are more susceptible to things like cults. The reasons are as varied as the people. Generally though, your assessment seems to be accurate.

People like answers, not uncertainty. Thunder=must be Thor beating his hammer. Generally speaking, they don't like "not knowing." They also like convenience and care less about truth and more about whether they like or dislike what they are hearing. Also there is violence, fear, and intimidation to spread said ideas/practices. Quite the vicious cycle if you ask me. Instead of being their own leader they choose to be followers, it's easier to follow than to lead yourself or think for yourself. "Huh, how convenient? The answers are all here! No need to think or ask the hard questions now!"