I once needed my (pretty smart, actually) girlfriend to hold two wires of a car floodlight to the battery terminals (broken cigar lighter plug) and she flat wouldn't do it. Even after I did it myself to show it was safe. She couldn't get over the fear of being shocked. By 12v.
So it's a combination of fear of the unknown, fear of change, and years of conditioning. I'd say "conditioning with no nuance" except a lot of that does actually include details. Alas, many people will get as far as "electricity bad" and won't understand the nuance, so it gets lost anyway.
I think the fear will fade with time and familiarity, like happens with most technological advances. As long as there's no fear-mongering by paranoid conspiracy theorists. I was trying to work "future shock" in there somewhere without it sounding like a dad joke. I've failed on both counts.