When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows... by Steven Pinker - ISBN: 9781802061864
Paperback
Thinking about thoughts: how common knowledge shapes our world.
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When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...

Common Knowledge and the Science of Harmony, Hypocrisy and Outrage

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  • Paperback

    384 pages

  • Release Date

    1 December 2026

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Summary

Steven Pinker, one of the world’s greatest thinkers, investigates the logic and psychology of common knowledge.

As a cognitive scientist, the ultimate subject of Steven Pinker’s fascination is how we think about each other’s thoughts, ad infinitum. It sounds impossible, but Steven Pinker shows that we do it all the time. This awareness, which we experience as something that is public or “out there,” is called common knowledge, and it has a momentous impact on our social, political, an…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781802061864
ISBN-10:180206186X
Author:Steven Pinker
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint:Penguin
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:384
Release Date:1 December 2026
Weight:284g
Dimensions:22mm x 127mm x 197mm
A-Format
When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows... by Steven Pinker - ISBN: 9781802061864
127 × 197 mm
B-Format
C-Format
A4
mm / in
What They're Saying

Critics Review

When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows…is one of the most insightful books I’ve read about what makes us human and how we understand each other. It changed how I think about the interactions I have, and I bet it will do the same for you * Bill Gates *
Think you know what others think about what you are thinking? It turns out you’re probably wrong. And thanks to When Everyone Knows, now we know why. Once you read this book, you’ll never view human behavior quite the same way again – Jonah Berger, New York Times bestselling author of Contagious and The Catalyst
A masterful look behind the curtain at the calculations that propel us forward. With his brilliant knack for exposing what we take for granted, celebrated cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker explores, among many phenomena, our very human tendency to reveal information strategically, only letting others see what we want them to see – Annie Duke, bestselling author of Thinking in Bets and How to Decide
A lively exposition of one of the most important and basic concepts in game theory, and the surprising ways it plays out in human affairs – Robert Aumann, Nobel Laureate in Economics and Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Insight packed. With brisk authority, Pinker shows that a key aspect of being human, sociality, depends on a mutual understanding of intentions, which allows us to make sense of responses like laughing and blushing and phenomena as various as myth-making and online cancel culture – Daron Acemoglu, Nobel Laureate in Economics and New York Times bestselling author of Why Nations Fail
An expository masterpiece. Steven Pinker explains, with beautiful clarity, how common knowledge is critical to successful human interaction – Eric Maskin
If Pinker’s ideas become common knowledge, we’ll be far better equipped to handle the massive disruptions already arriving in our hyper-networked world – Jonathan Haidt

About The Author

Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker is an experimental cognitive scientist and the Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He has previously taught at Stanford and MIT.

Pinker is the author of eleven books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Enlightenment Now. He has received numerous awards for his research, teaching, and writing.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and has been recognized as a Humanist of the Year. Pinker holds nine honorary doctorates and has been named one of Foreign Policy’s ‘World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals’ and Time’s ‘100 Most Influential People in the World Today’.

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