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4 Ways to Use Common Knowledge to be Happier with Steven Pinker

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Oct 6, 2025

Guest

Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker, a Harvard psychologist and bestselling author known for works like The Language Instinct, shares insights from his latest book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows. He discusses how common knowledge shapes our lives, influencing cooperation and social dynamics. Pinker highlights the power of nonverbal cues like laughter in fostering connection and the dangers of cancel culture when shared beliefs are suppressed. He also offers four principles to enhance personal happiness and encourages using common knowledge as a gift rather than a weapon.

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insights

INSIGHT

What Common Knowledge Is

Common knowledge means everyone knows that everyone knows something, iterated indefinitely.
It synchronizes consciousness and coordinates group behavior through public signals.

insights

INSIGHT

Signals Make Knowledge Public

Nonverbal signals like eye contact, laughter, and crying create common knowledge without conscious recursion.
These conspicuous signals align people’s behavior by making private states publicly visible.

insights

INSIGHT

Common Knowledge Threatens Dictators

Dictators fear public common knowledge because visible collective dissent removes their ability to intimidate.
Public demonstrations reveal mutual grievances and can overwhelm state coercion.

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What Is Common Knowledge?

01:00 • 6min

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Nonverbal Signals That Create Common Knowledge

07:04 • 4min

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How Laughter and Humor Make Private Knowledge Public

10:53 • 1min

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Why Dictators Fear Common Knowledge

12:15 • 2min

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The Psychological Politics of Kindness and Politeness

14:15 • 2min

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Cancel Culture, Academic Freedom, and Common Knowledge

Pluralistic Ignorance and Collective Illusion

18:10 • 9min

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Four Ways to Use Common Knowledge for Well-Being

26:46 • 1min

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Use Common Knowledge as a Gift, Not a Weapon

27:54 • 42sec

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Question Common Knowledge and Avoid Being a Sheep

28:36 • 36sec

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Don't Live in Fear; Practice Discretion and Courage

29:12 • 1min

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Radical Honesty: Seeking Truth, Challenging, and Transparency

30:12 • 8min

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Humor, Fear, and Self-Honesty for Happiness

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The Language Instinct

How the Mind Creates Language

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In this book, Steven Pinker argues that language is an innate human ability, produced by evolution to solve the problem of communication among social hunter-gatherers. He explains how language works, how children learn it, how it changes, and how the brain computes it. Pinker refutes common ideas such as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis and the notion that language is a human invention. He supports his argument with examples from linguistics, psychology, and popular culture, emphasizing that language is a specialized 'mental module' rather than a mark of advanced intelligence. The book also includes updates on advances in the science of language since its initial publication.

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In this book, Steven Pinker presents a detailed argument that violence has significantly decreased over the course of human history. He uses extensive data and statistical analysis to demonstrate this decline in various domains, including military conflict, homicide, genocide, torture, and the treatment of children, homosexuals, animals, and racial and ethnic minorities. Pinker identifies four key human motivations – empathy, self-control, the moral sense, and reason – as the 'better angels' that have oriented humans away from violence and towards cooperation and altruism. He also discusses historical forces such as the rise of the state (which he terms 'Leviathan'), the spread of commerce, the growth of feminist values, and the expansion of cosmopolitanism, which have contributed to this decline in violence.

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Self-Reliance

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Published in 1841, 'Self-Reliance' is one of Ralph Waldo Emerson's most famous essays. It advocates for individualism, urging readers to trust their own unique powers and intuition rather than conforming to societal norms. Emerson argues that true happiness and fulfillment come from living an authentic, self-reliant life, free from the pressures of conformity and institutionalized religion. The essay is a cornerstone of Transcendentalist philosophy, emphasizing themes such as nonconformity, the authority of the individual, and the importance of personal growth and self-trust.

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Tao te ching

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The Tao Te Ching is a central text in Taoist philosophy and religion. It consists of 81 brief chapters or sections that discuss the nature of the Tao, which is described as the source and ideal of all existence. The text emphasizes living in harmony with nature, the importance of simplicity, humility, and the interconnectedness of all things. It critiques unnatural actions and social activism based on abstract moralism, advocating for a life of 'nonaction' (wu wei) and spontaneity. The text has been highly influential in Chinese philosophy and has been translated numerous times, making it one of the most translated texts in world literature.

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When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows

Steven Pinker

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Enlightenment Now

Steven Pinker

In 'Enlightenment Now', Steven Pinker presents a comprehensive argument that the values of the Enlightenment—reason, science, and humanism—have been instrumental in the progress of human society. He challenges the prevailing pessimism in modern discourse by presenting empirical evidence that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise globally. Pinker uses data and graphs to illustrate improvements in various aspects of human life, such as increased life expectancy, reduced child and maternal mortality, and advancements in medicine and technology. He also addresses the psychological biases that lead people to underestimate these improvements and emphasizes the importance of continuing to uphold Enlightenment ideals to ensure further progress.

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From AI to Zombies

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Learn more about your affect profile by taking the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule quiz (PANAS) here.

So much of life depends not only on what we know, but also on what we know that others know as well. This shared awareness—what social scientists call common knowledge—explains how we cooperate, why markets rise and fall, and why silence in the face of cancel culture is so damaging.

In this episode of Office Hours, I’m joined by Dr. Steven Pinker, Harvard psychologist and bestselling author of The Language Instinct and Enlightenment Now. We discuss his new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows, and explore how common knowledge influences cooperation, politics, humor, and even happiness, and why using it as a gift, not a weapon, can help us all live better.

We cover:

• What common knowledge really is and why it matters in everyday life

• How nonverbal signals like eye contact or laughter shape our social lives

• Why so many Americans hide their true beliefs

• 4 principles that can help you live a happier, more meaningful life

• How to practice radical honesty with clarity and kindness

We’d love to hear any feedback you have. Please email us at officehours@arthurbrooks.com. And please leave a review on Apple or Spotify. Thanks for listening!

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