Ep70 "The Science Behind Why We Don’t Just Say What We Mean" with Psychologist Steven Pinker - Part 2

In the final part of this two-part interview, Steven Pinker, an experimental psychologist and Harvard professor, again joins hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen to discuss his new book When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life . In this episode, Jonathan and Jules break down more revelatory examples from Steven’s book that demonstrate how common knowledge is a first order explanatory variable for how humans behave. They also explore the role common knowledge plays in financial markets, particularly when it comes to speculative trading, and examine common knowledge in an academic freedom sense, highlighting the delicate balance between promoting open debate and safeguarding societal norms. Find All Else Equal on the web: All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of the UPenn Wharton Lauder Institute through University FM . Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Ep70 "The Science Behind Why We Don’t Just Say What We Mean" with Psychologist Steven Pinker - Part 2 is an episode from All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions by University.fm.

This episode is 00:23:46 long.

This episode was published on Jan 7, 2026.

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