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It's unrealistic to expect naive subjects to learn how to use GnuPG in an hour. It takes longer than that to learn a new game! People need at least to know what public-key cryptography is before trying to use it. But unfortunately, the Wikipedia entry is rather intimidating.[0] The GnuPG FAQ (at 7.1) is clearer, but not so easy to find.[1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy

[1] https://www.gnupg.org/faq/gnupg-faq.html

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You said "People need at least to know what public-key cryptography is before trying to use it." I think this is untrue. People really just need to know how to work with the technology, not understand what it's actually doing. Trying to explain the underlying principles makes it more confusing and thus, less safe.

I mean basic stuff. Users need to know that they have both public keys and private keys. That public keys allow other users to encrypt stuff to them. So they need to share them. That private keys allow them to decrypt stuff encrypted to their public keys, and also to sign stuff. So they need to protect them, keep them private. Failure to get those basic facts accounted for much of the craziness and confusion in the cited study.

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