I must add that this feeling "people judging you" is mostly YOU. That is we THINK what other people are thinking, as we don't have direct link to their brains. The intensity of this feeling is related to your personal feeling of your self worth, which again doesn't have much to do with any realistic criteria. From my personal experience people love you, find you interesting, miss you when you are not there, etc. much more that you think.
If several possible motivations describe the same behavior, why go for the most cynical one? It is not a sign of intellectual rigor. There is a wide array of emotions, and not every action is driven on fear and selfishness, in fact the best things most certainly aren't.
I heard similar phrasing used by one psychotherapist that I admire, "I am different from my wishes" and "I am different from my (past) behavior". He once said jokingly that if someone realizes that, he can give them a "60 year warranty on their mental health".
What I also find interesting is that this idea is rather old, it can be found in Christianity, for example, where "devil is tempting you", that is thoughts and wishes you have might not be your own (but from some demon tempting you). It may sound a bit silly in modern times, but it boils down to the same idea.
Because people live in a busy world, where knowledge is not transferred with enough love and integrity. And also people are afraid to say "I don't know" and what little they know they tend not to share.
To make things more specific, those labs had uncertainty budget with something like 20 terms for the things they measured. Each of those terms had associated probability distribution etc. They had uncertainty budgets for all the methods they did etc., and some of those where probably dated, done by someone else, etc. etc. Who checks that? Is the check rigorous enough? Are some assumptions made that don't hold to scrutiny?
So it is actually very easy for error to creep in, I would say actually very likely.