{"product_id":"9781668011591","title":"When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life","description":"\u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor\/Contributor(s):\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003ePinker, Steven\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eScribner\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDate:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e9\/1\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBinding:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003ePaperback\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003eNEW\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom one of the world’s most celebrated intellectuals, a “fascinating” (\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e), brilliantly insightful work that explains how we think about each other’s thoughts about each other’s thoughts, ad infinitum. It sounds impossible, but “superlatively gifted science writer” (\u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e) 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 \u003ci\u003ecommon knowledge\u003c\/i\u003e, and it has a momentous impact on our social, political, and economic lives.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCommon knowledge is necessary for \u003ci\u003ecoordination\u003c\/i\u003e, for making arbitrary but complementary choices like driving on the right, using paper currency, and coalescing behind a political leader or movement. It’s also necessary for \u003ci\u003esocial \u003c\/i\u003ecoordination: everything from rendezvousing at a time and place to speaking the same language to forming enduring relationships of friendship, romance, or authority. Humans have a sixth sense for common knowledge, and we create it with signals like laughter, tears, blushing, eye contact, and blunt speech.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e But people also go to great lengths to \u003ci\u003eavoid \u003c\/i\u003ecommon knowledge—to ensure that even if everyone knows something, they can’t know that everyone else knows they know it. And so we get rituals like benign hypocrisy, veiled bribes and threats, sexual innuendo, and pretending not to see the elephant in the room.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Pinker shows how the hidden logic of common knowledge can make sense of many of life’s enigmas: financial bubbles and crashes, revolutions that come out of nowhere, the posturing and pretense of diplomacy, the eruption of social media shaming mobs and academic cancel culture, the awkwardness of a first date. Artists and humorists have long mined the intrigues of common knowledge, and Pinker liberally uses their novels, jokes, cartoons, films, and sitcom dialogues to illuminate social life’s tragedies and comedies. Along the way he answers questions like:\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e -Why do people hoard toilet paper at the first sign of an emergency?\u003cbr\u003e -Why are Super Bowl ads dominated by crypto?\u003cbr\u003e -Why, in American presidential primary voting, do citizens typically select the candidate they believe is preferred by \u003ci\u003eothers\u003c\/i\u003e rather than their favorite?\u003cbr\u003e -Why did Russian authorities arrest a protester who carried a blank sign?\u003cbr\u003e -Why is it so hard for nervous lovers to say goodbye at the end of a phone call?\u003cbr\u003e -Why does everyone agree that if we were completely honest all the time, life would be unbearable?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Consistently riveting in explaining the paradoxes of human behavior, and “one of the most insightful books…about what makes us human” (Bill Gates), \u003ci\u003eWhen Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows…\u003c\/i\u003e invites us to understand the ways we try to get into each other’s heads and the harmonies, hypocrisies, and outrages that result.","brand":"Scribner","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48221629907199,"sku":"9781668011591","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0452\/0886\/2873\/files\/9781668011591_s600x595.jpg?v=1780074286","url":"https:\/\/massivebookshop.com\/de\/products\/9781668011591","provider":"MASSIVE BOOKSHOP","version":"1.0","type":"link"}