Hi Scott,
I looked into the psychology of the phenomenon. You can google it and find a variety of theories, too long to go into on here. 

Basically they speak of faith all the time but it's not actually faith they are speaking about. It's religion. It has more in common with the Taliban than it does Jesus Christ. It is found in monotheistic religions but not in polytheistic. 

One of its main traits is a lack of humour. This is actually an important point as most people tend to find humour in all sorts of aspects to their lives. Humour actually has the ability to help us change our minds on things like belief. When it is absent, rigidity sets in.

Gerry Hughes SJ wrote some great stuff on this subject in his book 'God of Surprises'. He put it down to repentant/unrepentant people, Churches, countries. The repentant person can laugh at himself, be light-hearted, open, drawn to God.

The unrepentant person is overbearing, serious, driven by God. Their justification for everything is God.