Ritualized language and signaling closeness

Steven Pinker may be the world’s best-known cognitive psychologist, a public intellectual who for decades has used his fame to help us understand how we think, how we develop language, and how our behaviour is shaped by evolution and biology.

He’s a professor of Psychology at Harvard and his most recent book is a hugely entertaining reflection on social norms, cooperation, outrage cycles, social media pile-ons, sudden political shifts, and moral panics. It’s called When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows, and Pinker joins Josh to discuss echo chambers, status hierarchies, and the corrosion of common ground.