PHP testing emptying out collection

I’m currently trying to write PHP tests using pest for a search feature within a chat component. The component works fine when being used in my test environment though i’m unable to get a certain test to pass. The objective is to be able to return multiple messages that meet a specific search term.

Here is the test itself in ChatSearchTest.php:

/** @test */
    public function the_component_can_return_multiple_search_results()
    {
        $messages_fixed_content = ChatMessage::factory(2)
        ->for($this->members[0], 'from')
        ->for($this->members[1], 'to')
        ->create([ 
            'content' => 'test123'
        ]);

        $messages_random_content = ChatMessage::factory(1)
        ->for($this->members[0], 'from')
        ->for($this->members[1], 'to')
        ->create();

        $messages = $messages_fixed_content->merge($messages_random_content);
         
        $chat_search = 'test123';
        
        $component = Livewire::test(ChatSearch::class, ['partnership' => $this->partnership])
            ->set('chat_search', $chat_search)
            ->call('getSearchResults', $chat_search);
            ->assertCount('messages', 2);
    }   

And the relevant code it’s testing in ChatSearch.php:

public function updatedChatSearch()
    {
        $this->getSearchResults();
    }

    public function getSearchResults()
    {
        $search_results = $this->getMessagesQuery()->get();
        $this->messages = $search_results;
        
        $this->have_results = true; 
    }

    protected function getMessagesQuery()
    {
        $query = $this->partnership
            ->chatMessages()
            ->with('from')
            ->with('shareable');
        if ($this->chat_search) {
            $query->search('content', $this->chat_search);
        }
        $query->latest();
        
        return $query;
    }

    public function goToMessage($message_id)
    {
        $this->emitUp('goToSearchResult', $message_id);
    }

The issue is that $this->messages returns an empty collection during the test, whereas on the actual testing environment, it works. If I dump out at the end of getSearchResults() it correctly shows $this->have_results as true though $this->messages returns an empty collection, as does $search_results.