Whenever I've helped older people with technology they've never used before (a new tablet or similar), if I started off with any suggestion that it's less than simple, they'll almost certainly frame the problem scope in their mind as difficult, and give up, because they're already exhibiting some animosity toward learning a new thing.

If instead you phrase it as "this is really easy, let me show you how...", you short-circuit this process by framing their expectations differently, and that little bit of extra confidence ("this is easy") can help them through the learning process.

I've found you can't simply show them, either. It's almost better to say "It's easy" and then go through the process, because it's absolutely necessary to establish expectations first. They're already afraid of it (it's new), so doing something to get their guard down can go a long way toward helping them explore on their own. I tried this experiment with my mother, and some weeks later she'd have a problem and discover the solution herself specifically because she was convinced it was easy to do. This can (and will) backfire if you're not careful about how you do it, but I've had far more success using this tool than other techniques individually (e.g. writing down instructions).

This doesn't broadly apply to areas outside education and support (or even to all areas in education), but for simple things that people may express an irrational fear over, it works and it works well. A good teacher will use this technique successfully with their students, so if you're teaching someone, use it!