actually, might depend on their age as well.
If they are close to retirement...they might be thinking they do not have years to gain it all back.
Lots of boomers in the market and the overall economic feeling is not good.
The problem with that line of thinking is that an average retirement is close to 20 years. Often much longer than that. So they actually do have time to gain it all back (while beating inflation).
I have a MIL who retired at 62 and she's almost 90 today. Her biggest regret was getting out of the stock market and converting her nest egg to an annuity - which today scarcely meets her needs. She is literally running out of money which is a nightmare scenario for an aging retiree with no option of going back to work. Had she stayed in the stock market with what she had back in 1995 (the year she retired), she would easily be a millionaire today.