Welcome to letter #5 of The Behaviorist Newsletter.

A newsletter that aims to make you a borderline behavioral scientist.

Each week, I drop a letter that unmasks human behavior and social biases to help you outsmart other’s actions and stay ahead.

Let’s get going.

Table of Contents

• Welcome to letter #5 of The Behaviorist Newsletter …

  • What is The Curse of Knowledge?

  • Roots of The Curse of Knowledge

    • Real-life Examples of Its Impact:

  • How Could Someone Use This Bias Against You

  • Bias Buster - How to Outmaneuver People Using This …

    • Practice Empathy and Perspective-Taking

    • Use the "Explain It to a Child" Technique

    • Seek Feedback and Ask Questions

    • Use Analogies and Real-World Examples

    • Create a Shared Knowledge Base

    • Practice Incremental Disclosure

  • Parting Words.

Bias of The Week - The Curse of Knowledge

Have you ever tried to explain something you're an expert in to your friend and he looked at you like you were speaking fluent Martian?

Or struggled to understand why a beginner can't grasp a concept that seems so obvious to you?

No, it's not them, it's you!

Welcome to the curse of knowledge.

The agenda is simple. By the end of this post, you'll understand:

• What the curse of knowledge is and the science behind it

• How it affects your thinking and communication

• Examples of where it shows up in your daily life

• How people might use it against you

• And how to overcome it to become a better communicator and thinker

P.S 1. If you want to read this post in a logic tree, download the image below. Tag me on Instagram if you post it so I can give you a shoutout. My Instagram is right below in the footer. :)

What is The Curse of Knowledge?

The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that occurs when you assume that others can understand what you’re talking about easily. 

This bias is also known as the curse of expertise.

Here’s an example that can make sense to you.

Think back when you were in college or school.

Do you remember when your professor or teacher was explaining a subject to you that was foreign to you as a student?

But half way through that, you zoned out?

This is why.

You see, that professor no longer remembers the difficulties encountered when learning that subject for the first time.

Professors and other subject-matter experts assume that whatever they’re talking about is too obvious, and anyone can get it even though that's not the case.

The term "curse of knowledge" was coined in a 1989 Journal of Political Economy article by economists Colin Camerer, George Loewenstein, and Martin Weber.

Their research aimed to counter the assumption in economic analyses that better-informed agents can accurately anticipate the judgement of less-informed agents.

As psychologist Steven Pinker puts it:

"The curse of knowledge is the single best explanation I know of why good people write bad prose."

Roots of The Curse of Knowledge

The curse of knowledge is deeply rooted in how our brains process and store information:

1. Knowledge Integration: As we learn, our brains integrate new information with existing knowledge, creating complex mental models.

2. Automaticity: With expertise, certain thought processes become automatic and unconscious.

3. Difficulty in Perspective-Taking: Our own knowledge makes it hard to imagine not knowing something.

4. False-Consensus Effect: We tend to overestimate how common our knowledge or opinions are among others.

Neuroscientific studies have shown that experts use different brain regions when thinking about their field compared to novices.

This difference in neural activation patterns might contribute to the difficulty in relating to a beginner's perspective.

Moreover, the curse of knowledge is closely related to other cognitive biases:

• Hindsight Bias: Once we know something, it's hard to remember what it was like not to know it.

• Illusion of Transparency: We overestimate how well we communicate our thoughts to others.

Think of this bias as a mental trap that comes with expertise.

The more you know about a subject, the harder it becomes to imagine not knowing it.

This is why you might have or see communication breakdowns and misunderstandings.

So let’s recap.

In a nutshell, the curse of knowledge:

- Makes it difficult for experts to explain complex concepts to novices

- Leads to miscommunication and frustration in various setting.

- Can result in ineffective teaching, labeling one as a bad communicator, and misaligned expectations

Examples of The Curse of Knowledge in Life

Real-life Examples of Its Impact:

In Professional Life:

• A software developer using technical jargon that confuses non-technical team members. (Raising my hand).

• A manager giving you vague instructions, assuming you understand the context

• A marketer creating ads that make sense to them but not to you as the target audience

In Personal Life:

• Parents struggling to help children with homework, forgetting how challenging the concepts once were

• A hobby enthusiast unable to teach beginners, skipping over crucial basic steps

• Friends miscommunicating due to assumed shared knowledge about a situation

In Society and Education:

• Policymakers creating overly complex regulations, forgetting the average person's perspective

• Textbook authors writing in a way that's clear to experts but confusing to students (Like Hume is writing to a 5 year-old)

• Public health officials using medical terminology that the general public doesn't understand (Think about Covid and the ideas they pushed under complex medical term).

In Politics:

• The curse of knowledge can exacerbate political polarization.
  Each side, expert in their own viewpoints, may struggle to understand or empathize with the other's perspective.

• For example, climate change debates where scientists and environmental advocates struggle to understand why some people are skeptical of their evidence.

So as you can tell, it’s pretty common and present across all areas of our life.

Now this takes me to the next section.

How Could Someone Use This Bias Against You

1. Intimidation: Someone might use complex jargon or concepts to make you feel inferior or inadequate.

2. Manipulation: By assuming you have knowledge you don't, they might lead you to make uninformed decisions.

3. Exclusion: In group settings, they might use insider knowledge to create an "in-group" that excludes your presence.

4. Misdirection: They could use your lack of knowledge in an area to distract you from important issues.

While the curse of knowledge can negatively impact communication, there's no clear way for someone to purposefully use it to their advantage against another person.

The bias arises from a lack of empathy and understanding for you when you are just starting to learn something.

It requires that expert making an effort to see things from your perspective as a novice in that topic.

Bias Buster - How to Outmaneuver People Using This Bias and Get Your Way

So if you’re an expert in something and noticed a few times that others might be zoned out when you explain something, keep the following in mind:

Practice Empathy and Perspective-Taking

Actively try to put yourself in a beginner's shoes. Remember what it was like when you first learned the subject.

Use the "Explain It to a Child" Technique

Avoid jargon. It throws people off.

Challenge yourself to explain complex concepts as if you were talking to a child. This forces you to break down ideas into simpler terms.

Seek Feedback and Ask Questions

Take a few minutes and ask if the others are still following along or need to understand something.

This helps you identify gaps in your explanation.

Use Analogies and Real-World Examples

Remember how I started this newsletter? With an example that makes sense.

Connect abstract concepts to familiar ideas or everyday experiences to make them more relatable.

Create a Shared Knowledge Base

This works if you work with others.

Establish a common vocabulary and prerequisites required to ensure everyone has access to necessary background information.

Practice Incremental Disclosure

Start with the basics and gradually introduce more complex ideas, ensuring understanding at each step.

Remember, true expertise isn't just about knowing a lot, it's about being able to share that knowledge effectively with others.

Parting Words.

So, there you have it.

A crash course in the Curse of Knowledge bias.

Remember, the next time you're explaining something and your audience looks as confused as a goldfish at a rave, don't blame them. 

They're not slow (I hope), you're just a victim of your own brain's brilliance (or maybe just a good cram session).

Here's your action item for the week: 

Think about a time you recently struggled to explain something. Was the Curse of Knowledge bias at play?

Share your experience (anonymously, if you'd like) in the comments below! Let's all learn from each other's hilarious communication mishaps.

Until next time, stay clear!