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When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...

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When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...

Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life

Scribner,

15 min read
8 take-aways
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What's inside?

The secret to understanding human society lies in the “common knowledge” people accept about the world and their place in it.

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  • Analytical
  • Concrete Examples
  • For Experts

Recommendation

Social relationships operate like “coordination games,” explains cognitive psychologist Stephen Pinker: cooperation depends on “common knowledge” — that is, what “everyone knows that everyone knows.” This erudite concept helps explain how complex social and economic systems function. Understanding how people create, share, and sometimes avoid common knowledge provides powerful insights into human behavior. By understanding how common knowledge works, you can better navigate office politics, foster stronger collaboration, and cultivate richer professional and personal relationships.

Summary

Reflect on “common knowledge” to gain a deeper understanding of complex social dynamics.

“Private knowledge” is information that you possess without knowing whether others are aware of it. “Common knowledge” — also known as “open knowledge,” “public knowledge,” “shared awareness,” or “collective consciousness” — on the other hand, refers to information shared by two or more people, with the added condition that all parties are mutually aware that they all possess that knowledge. For example, when the little boy in the well-known folktale “The Emperor’s New Clothes” loudly announced that the emperor was, in fact, naked — a truth everyone present could see for themselves — his statement confirmed that he knew what everyone else knew. At that moment, the emperor’s nakedness became common knowledge, and the crowd began to ridicule what they had previously pretended to admire.

As the fable illustrates, learning that something is common knowledge can reshape how people think or feel about a situation and embolden them to take actions they wouldn’t necessarily take armed solely with private knowledge. Direct speech creates common knowledge by allowing people to coordinate...

About the Author

Cognitive psychologist and psycholinguist Steven Pinker is the author of numerous books, including The Stuff of Thought, The Sense of Style, and Rationality.

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