When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows: Common Knowledge and the Science of Harmony, Hypocrisy and Outrage by Steven Pinker (Paperback)

In When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows..., cognitive scientist Steven Pinker looks at how we think about what other people think, often several layers deep. He calls that shared awareness common knowledge and shows how much of social, political and economic life runs on it.

Pinker uses the idea to make sense of things that otherwise seem baffling, and also explores why people work so hard to keep certain things unsaid. It is a lively choice for readers of psychology, economics and big-idea nonfiction.

• Everyday puzzles: bubbles and crashes, revolutions that seem to erupt overnight and the theatre of diplomacy
• Social life: online shaming campaigns and the awkwardness of a first date
• Avoiding the obvious: polite hypocrisy, veiled threats and the elephant in the room
• Author: the cognitive scientist behind The Better Angels of Our Nature

Details

• Author: Steven Pinker
• Publisher: Allen Lane (Penguin)
• Published: September 2025
• Format: Paperback, 384 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9780241618837