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Steven Pinker: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows

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Manage episode 515285867 series 13382
Content provided by Commonwealth Club of California. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Commonwealth Club of California or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

What’s common about common knowledge, and how does it become common? Common knowledge—the awareness of how others think and even how others think others think—is needed for social coordination, things as basic as driving on the same side of the road or using paper currency. And it has a hidden logic that makes it all work.

Cognitive psychologist and author Steven Pinker returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs in Silicon Valley to explore some of the paradoxes of human behavior. It’s the subject of his latest book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life.

Pinker addresses issues as seemingly disparate as why people hoard toilet paper when an emergency breaks, why crypto ads clog up Super Bowl advertising, why Russian officials arrested a protester carrying a blank sign, or even why everyone seems to agree that life would be unbearable if everyone was completely honest at all times. Tying it all together, he says, is our ability to know what others think and what others think about what others think . . . on and on, ad infinitum.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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2787 episodes

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iconShare
 
Manage episode 515285867 series 13382
Content provided by Commonwealth Club of California. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Commonwealth Club of California or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

What’s common about common knowledge, and how does it become common? Common knowledge—the awareness of how others think and even how others think others think—is needed for social coordination, things as basic as driving on the same side of the road or using paper currency. And it has a hidden logic that makes it all work.

Cognitive psychologist and author Steven Pinker returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs in Silicon Valley to explore some of the paradoxes of human behavior. It’s the subject of his latest book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life.

Pinker addresses issues as seemingly disparate as why people hoard toilet paper when an emergency breaks, why crypto ads clog up Super Bowl advertising, why Russian officials arrested a protester carrying a blank sign, or even why everyone seems to agree that life would be unbearable if everyone was completely honest at all times. Tying it all together, he says, is our ability to know what others think and what others think about what others think . . . on and on, ad infinitum.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  continue reading

2787 episodes

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