New Books in Psychology Steven Pinker, "When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life" (Scribner, 2025)
Mar 23, 2026
Steven Pinker, cognitive scientist and linguist and author of When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows, explores how common knowledge shapes money, power, and everyday life. He discusses signals like laughter, blushing, and eye contact. He also examines strategic ambiguity, protests and censorship, and how online bubbles and rituals create or block mass coordination.
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Common Knowledge Is Coordination Glue
- Common knowledge is knowing something plus knowing that others know it to infinite levels.
- Steven Pinker explains it as a game-theory state required for coordination like rendezvousing or maintaining currency.
Euphemism Preserves Relationships By Avoiding Common Knowledge
- Indirect speech like euphemism or veiled offers preserves relationships by avoiding creating common knowledge of intentions.
- Pinker illustrates with come-ons, veiled bribes, and fundraising phrasing to show higher-order deniability matters.
Power Depends On Everyone Knowing Everyone Knows
- Political power depends on common knowledge because regimes rely on many people not coordinating resistance.
- Pinker uses Gandhi's line and explains public events create safety in numbers to enable mass protest or collapse.
