

Dan Sperber
French cognitive anthropologist and philosopher known for developing relevance theory with Deirdre Wilson and for work on the epidemiology of representations and cultural evolution.
Best podcasts with Dan Sperber
Ranked by the Snipd community

Nov 28, 2025 • 1h 26min
EP #18 | Relevance & Communication | Dan Sperber
Dan Sperber, French cognitive anthropologist and philosopher who co-developed relevance theory, explains how communication elicits expectations that guide attention and interpretation. He challenges encoding-decoding models and explores pragmatics, ostension, attention costs, epistemic vigilance, and why certain signals spread across cultures. Short, sharp takes on why we find some messages irresistible.


