When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...

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

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

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

<b>Jonah Berger, <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Contagious</i> and <i>The Catalyst</i> </b>

An expository masterpiece. Steven Pinker explains, with beautiful clarity, how common knowledge is critical to successful human interaction

Eric Maskin

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

<b>Annie Duke, bestselling author of <i>Thinking in Bets</i> and <i>How to Decide</i> </b>

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

<b>Robert Aumann, Nobel Laureate in Economics and Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem </b>

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

<b>Daron Acemoglu, Nobel Laureate in Economics and <i> New York Times </i> bestselling author of <i> Why Nations Fail </i></b>

‘Foregrounds Steven Pinker’s many virtues as a populariser of science: his lucid style, his ability to marshal technical research for a general audience, and his more specialised, uncanny talent for discovering New Yorker cartoons that illustrate arcane results . . . Pinker ranges far and wide, showing how common knowledge plays a role in everything from laughter and tears, to euphemism and flirtation

John Maier, Sunday Times

A brilliant exploration of common knowledge as the glue that holds society together

Maria Konnikova, author of </i>The Biggest Bluff</i>

A characteristically lucid account [by the] superlatively gifted science writer

James Marriott, The Times

A fizzing, erudite book

Economist, Books of the Year

An accessible primer on game theory and the psychology of making decisions

Margaret Heller, Library Journal

An enjoyable . . . convincing case that [common knowledge] is actually fundamental to the way we live our lives

Steven Levitt

As lively an exposition of cognitive science as you are likely to find … it enlightens and provokes; to pick up Pinker’s own metaphor, it is worth dancing with

Rowan Williams, Guardian

Diverting and often informative

Dominic Green, The Wall Street Journal

Fascinating . . . Provides a logical explanation for all sorts of seemingly irrational human behaviour

Financial Times

His genius is to take a phenomenon with which we’re intimately acquainted, such as blushing or talking or crying, to invite us to ask why we do it then to hand us … a satisfying feeling of renewed understanding

Jessie Munton, Times Literary Supplement

Makes a compelling case that knowing what everyone else knows transforms societies . . . graceful and clear . . . fascinating

Michael Marshall, New Scientist

Pinker delivers his case much like a sprightly college lecture

Andrew Lynch, Irish Times

Tantalizing . . . A concept that seems to apply to everything we do with one another as humans

Alan Alda

The creation … and denial of common knowledge are far more complex than we think

Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker

The most important psychological concept you’ve never heard of

Yascha Mounk

There are a lot of brain-teasers … but it’s also fun

HBR IdeaCast

There is a galvanising infusion of jeopardy, morality and reality

Andrew Anthony, The Observer

Well organized and clearly explained

Dennis Duncan, The New York Times Book Review