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Common knowledge is the thread of society

Steven Pinker explains how shared certainty shapes the quiet rules we all obey.

There is an invisible psychological phenomenon that binds humanity: the concept of “common knowledge.” It becomes visible only in the moments when someone understands you are “in on it” with them: “I know that you know, and you know that I know.”

But this goes far deeper than shared awareness of what we’ve seen in movies, on social media, or in everyday …

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