What Is Common Knowledge and Recursive Mentalizing?

Steven Pinker’s new book argues that all our relationships depend on shared assumptions and “recursive mentalizing” — our constant efforts to understand what other people are thinking. He and Steve talk about the psychology of eye contact, the particular value of Super Bowl ads, and what it’s like to get cancelled.

• SOURCES:
  • Steven Pinker, professor of psychology at Harvard University.

• RESOURCES:
  • When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows, by Steven Pinker (2025).
  • "Why I Left Harvard," by Carole Hooven (The Free Press, 2024).
  • Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters, by Steven Pinker (2021).
  • "Economics of Toilet Paper X Thread," by Justin Wolfers (2020).
  • "How a Famous Harvard Professor Became a Target Over His Tweets," by Michael Powell (New York Times, 2020).
  • "Police Killings of Blacks: Here Is What the Data Say," by Sendhil Mullainathan (2015).
  • SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (2011).
  • Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge, by Michael Suk-Young Chwe (2003).
  • "Open Letter to the LSA."

• EXTRAS:
  • "Steven Pinker: 'I Manage My Controversy Portfolio Carefully,'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2020).

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