they afraid because bitcoin price is not stable and afraid lose their money because bitcoin price is expensive.
they have never tried, they are afraid to try it.
its not about the unstability that they are afraid of but it is because of the bad news that they heard . they think cryptos are scam because almost all ads that we see online related to cryptos are always asking for investment or initial payments before they get started .
speaking of phobia , phobia's were only differ from person to person . so not all that have read negative news will possibly have a crypto phobia .