Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Finally got Steven Pinker. I know. Okay, yes, we're going to learn all about how the brain is messed up. We don't need him for that. Coming up, the latest from the mind of Steven Pinker on StarTalk. Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. This is StarTalk Special Edition. Neil deGrasse Tyson here.
You're a personal astrophysicist. And when you hear special edition, that means we have Gary in the house. Hey, Neil. How you doing, Gary? I'm good. Chuckie baby. That's right. How you doing, man? I'm doing great. So today, we're talking about common knowledge.
Yes.
Common knowledge? But why is that interesting?
If we think about it, we humans have evolved to be social creatures, and we rely upon each other for many things. We use language to communicate and coordinate ourselves. But do we consciously strategize in our social behavior, and are we aware of our own signaling when we interact? And to your point, what role does common knowledge play in our everyday lives?
I mean, I depend on that all the time, just as an educator.
Fine, but a lot of people won't realize that it is something they're using as a tool. Some people will, as you do. And does it then play a role in the big ticket items like financial crashes or political revolutions? Now, okay, I can drone on. I've said enough. Let's introduce our guest.
We're going to connect common knowledge to revolutions.
Let's see.
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Chapter 2: How does common knowledge influence our social interactions?
Steven Pinker. Oh, we met Steven.
Steven Pinker, welcome to StarTalk. Thank you. My gosh, we go way back. We do. Decades. This, I think, is your first time on StarTalk. Bad oversight on our part because there's no reason for that. You're too active. Your stuff you work on is too interesting for it to have gone this long without you being on. So thank you. Better late.
And I just have to ask up top, are you still winning the best hair for a scientist contest every year?
Oh, I don't know if the luxuriant flowing hair club for scientists is still active.
That's what it was called?
Luxuriant flowing hair club for scientists.
That means it had no black people in it.
I think it did, actually. There are some impressive dreadlocks. You can dread your way in. There are some pretty amazing afros out there, too. It's a pretty cool club. This is a project of the respected scientific outlet, the Journal of Irreproducible Results.
Oh, good. We should do a whole episode on them at one point. And the Ig Nobel Prizes.
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Chapter 3: What role does common knowledge play in financial systems?
The Better Angels of Our Nature. Oh, my gosh. That's very funny, yeah. It has the two words common knowledge in the title. In the subtitle. Subtitle.
So give me the full up title. So the title of the book is When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows... And there's a story behind that. The subtitle is Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life. Whoa. And I can explain all of those things. Leave anything out there. That is, that's a title.
That's actually three titles. You see what he done? I mean, I know you're a psychologist, but you've put in mysteries. Yes. There you go. And then money and power. I should have put in sex, too.
Yes. I'm sure you'll get there.
He's completely manipulating the buyer.
Of course. Absolutely. Of course. Now I want to hear the story behind this title, because that's a lot. Okay, so common knowledge in the technical sense refers to the situation where I know something, you know it, I know that you know it, you know that I know it, I know that you know that I know it, ad infinitum. So it's when everyone knows that everyone knows, and the dot, dot, dot is essential.
I had to fight with my editor. He says, oh, it'll screw up the computer listings on Amazon.
That's the infinity.
That's the infinity. Yes, yes.
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Chapter 4: How does common knowledge affect political dynamics?
I never thought to think about that. It's been explored by game theorists, the branch of mathematics dealing with the best strategy when other people have their own strategies. It's a big deal in economics for reasons that we'll get to. It's been studied by philosophers, but it is a psychological phenomenon.
It's getting in the heads of other people when they're getting into your heads or still other people's heads. And they've never been explored from a psychological point of view. Now, why is it significant? The reason that it's important is that common knowledge is necessary for coordination.
That is for two people being on the same page doing things that benefit them both as long as each one can expect the other one to do it.
Don't we call that civilization?
Well, civilization does depend on institutions like government, like money. The reason it's in the subtitle is the only reason that a piece of paper with Abraham Lincoln on it is valuable is because other people treat it as valuable. Now, why do they treat it as valuable? Well, because they know that other people will treat it as valuable. That's what makes it a currency. Likewise for power.
There's no way a government can intimidate every last member of its citizenry. Give it time. I'm working on it. I recognize the impression. But the government has power. A president is a president, and a governor is a governor, and the chairman of the board is the chairman of the board, because everyone treats them as if they are. It's a social reality.
Our corporations, our religions, our gods, our conventions, even language itself, what makes the word rose beautiful? refer to a rose, it would smell just as sweet by any other name. Rose means rose because everyone knows it means rose, and everyone knows that everyone knows. So all of our conventions, all of our ways of coordinating, all of our harmony depends on common knowledge.
Just to give a concrete example from Thomas Schelling, the political scientist and economist who was one of the originators of the concept. Imagine that, say, a husband and wife get lost in Manhattan. This is the era before cell phones. How can they meet up? He can think, well, she likes to go to a bookstore, so I'll meet her there.
But then he thinks, oh, but she knows that I like to go to a camera store, so maybe she'll go to the camera store. But then she knows that I know that she likes to go to the bookstore. She'll go to the bookstore after all. Meanwhile, each of them can kind of ricochet with this useless empathy and still not end up at the same place at the same time.
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Chapter 5: What examples illustrate the importance of common knowledge?
This immediately raises a question. People say, well, you define common knowledge as I know that she knows that I know that she knows that I know that she knows, but no one can keep track of them. That's why you have plots like the Honeymooners or there's an episode in Friends that people always tell me about where Rachel says, Joey, they don't know that we know that they know that we know.
You can't say anything. And he says, I couldn't even if I wanted to. The point being that your head starts to spin when you have to keep track of more than two or three layers of I know that she knows. So how is this possible?
Well, the reason it's possible is that we can get common knowledge at a stroke when there is something that we sense to be public or out there or salient or you can't miss it or it's in your face. So if I see something at the same time as I see you see it, then that implicitly packs into it as many layers as we would ever need, and we don't have to think them all through.
But it also means that we're really, really sensitive to something that is public, that you can't ignore, versus something that may be known privately. And I have chapters in the book on how that shapes our language, why we don't just blurt out what we mean, but often...
veil our intentions in euphemism and innuendo to prevent things from being common knowledge phenomena like being in the closet or for any whatever is the reason well and it used to be it used to be the that's where my clothes are that's why well my graduate that means you have a walk-in closet i didn't know that very good dude Well, my graduate advisor, actually, he insisted he was not gay.
He was a homosexual. In the day.
In the day. That's right.
He said that to be gay, you have to be born in the 50s or later. He was born in the 20s. But no one ever acknowledged that he was gay, and he would never acknowledge it. someone who described him as a bachelor. Confirmed bachelor. Until he was in his late 50s when he finally, as we say, came out. Notice the metaphors. In the closet means that it's not public, you can't see it.
Coming out means not only can you see him, but you can see everyone else seeing him. But that's a good metaphor for common knowledge. And common knowledge in general governs our relationships as well as our institutions. So it's not just money and power.
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Chapter 6: How does humor relate to common knowledge?
Weak words. That sounds like a fun chapter. But acceptable duplicity when, I mean, there's all kinds of kind of benign hypocrisy. The politician who resigns to spend more time with his family. The escort services. Would you like to come up for Netflix and chill? Let's say you were trying to bribe a maitre d' to jump the queue and be seated immediately.
You might, kind of holding out a $50 bill in peripheral vision, say, is there anything you can do to shorten my wait? I was wondering if you might have a cancellation. Right.
A $50 cancellation.
And not, if I give you $50, will you seat me right away? Exactly. Because that would be crass. And so what does it mean for it to be crass? What it means is you're disrespecting the relationship you have where he is the authority and he sees you where and when he pleases. You're treating him like a transactional relationship, which is a very different kind of human relationship.
Likewise, what's the difference between you want to come up for Netflix and chill and you want to come up for sex? Well, with Netflix and chill, there isn't really plausible deniability. I mean, you know, she's a grownup. She knows what it means. But she could have some doubt that you know that she knows that you know what it means.
And she could think, well, maybe he thinks I'm naive and I'm just turning down an invitation to a movie. He could think, well, maybe she thinks I'm dense and that I might think she's naive or I might think that she doesn't realize that I'm not naive. And so they can maintain, go back to their platonic relationship. They haven't jumped to a different level.
Well, it's a plausible deniability of common knowledge. Because when you think about it, it's really not that plausible. Right. Everybody knows. But the thing is, everyone may not know that everyone knows. Exactly. And what that does is it allows you to save face.
So saving face, by the way, another great – going back to the idea, how could – if common knowledge is so important, as I say it is, and it requires I know that she knows, which makes your head hurt, how could it work so well? And one of the reasons is that we talk about it not using the language of – philosophy or game theory, but metaphors of something being visible out in the open.
That's why we use expressions like in the closet or saving face. Face is the part of you that other people see and that you use to see other people. So saving face or losing face is a great metaphor.
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Chapter 7: What are the consequences of distorted common knowledge?
Oh, I'm doing some weather experiments.
Thank you. And so then, and he said, you got a permit for that? And he says, of course I do. Okay. So then he comes down and goes up to him. This is the deleted scene. He walks up to him, opens his wallet, and there's just cash there. Oh, my goodness. That doesn't have his permit. I didn't know. Oh. I was about to say, I didn't see that. Yeah.
He bribed him, but that's kind of out of character with how he's just a lovable, doddering old scientist.
That would have damaged his character.
It would have damaged the character.
Yeah, that would have damaged the character. That would have been a perfect example. It's transactional. Well, the thing is that it's in fact transactional, but it's very dangerous to suggest to a cop that you have a transaction. In fact, it's illegal. So he just makes it visible.
Exactly.
That's all it is. It's somewhere in here. And so it's not plausibly deniable, but it's deniable that the other person knows that you know or knows that you know that he knows that you know. And that's what flips it from deference and respect and authority to transactional. And you want to avoid that flip, but you still want to do business. That's why they're reasonable. There was a scandal.
Because I'm from Philly, and it was, of course, Philadelphia politicians. But I forget the name of the scandal, but it was very famous because they caught it on tape. And only one politician didn't go for it. But these people, these feds, dressed up as, like, Saudi businessmen. Oh, Abscam. Abscam, that's exactly right. Abscam, 1980. And they had, like...
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Chapter 8: How can we foster civil discourse in a polarized society?
It's resolved in the moment. Yeah, it's resolved in the moment.
What? I will kick your ass. No.
Well, there are, I mean, so that's a case where the relationship of dominance is already established.
That's the exact scene in Coming to America. Is it? Where they're at the McDowell's home and the king says, how much for your daughter? Oh, okay. This is America, Jack. And You better stop me before I put my foot up your ass. Was that John Amos?
Yeah, John Amos.
I forget the exact words. In the moment. Because he's a king and just like a rich American.
Another great example. So why do cultures differ from each other? Well, if you think of the different kinds of relationships, so the basic kinds of relationships are communal sharing, warmth, intimacy. That's one model. Not America.
Well, another model is... What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine.
And then that's... Well, there's actually a twist on that. So another relationship is hierarchy, alpha male, pecking order, top dog. And the third one is transactional. Now, where cultures differ is not across the board, but in what kind of relationships, parent-child, student-teacher, employee-boss, friend-friend, what resource... money, favors, sex, and in what context? Home, school, public.
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