When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows…

Steven Pinker, one of the world’s most celebrated intellectuals, has spent a lifetime thinking about how we think. But what about how we think about others thinking about what we think, and so on, ad infinitum? Here Pinker shows us that this awareness is what makes us human. It is called common knowledge. It can make sense of many of life’s enigmas, from financial bubbles and social media shaming mobs to laughing, crying, blushing and eye contact. But people also go to great lengths to avoid people knowing that others know. And so we get rituals like benign hypocrisy, sexual innuendo and pretending not to see the elephant in the room. “When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...” invites us to understand the ways we try to get into each other’s heads and the harmonies, hypocrisies and outrages that result.