Most people I know have an idea of what is known by the general public within their culture, but I've rarely seen someone assert the opposite. Is it possible that people are aware of what everyone knows but are not sure about things which they don't know? Everyone rightly assumes that facts highly specific to one's daily life are not common knowledge, but as one generalizes I've noticed people become less sure about shared knowledge. This becomes clear in the assumptions people make when telling stories.
Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon? Is this something every other person knows and I've just missed? haha
Most of people do not know what they know and what they do not. It requires creative impulse and enjoyment of thinking to differentiate the two. Cognitive dissonance prevents most people to think about what they do not know. Then there are two types of knowledge: language, ability to repeat what people heared from peers, teachers, parents, and cognition - understanding of the mechanisms involved. Experts in a specific domain may cognitively understand their domain. But only truly creative people know whatthey know and what they do not (Socrates' famous: "I know that I know nothing"))
John,
It is your creative need speaking. Not everybody has it. A theory of cognitive dissonance, which has been developed since the 1950s, is among highly respected in psychology. It has demonstrated that most of people most of time are actively refusing to accept new knowledge. The reason is that new knowledge contradicts (some of) the old knowledge, this creates stress, and people actively avoid this stress.
Possibly this is why great things known to Aristotle are ignored by majority of peoplpe today.
You can look at an open preprint of our paper:
arXiv 1209.4017, Mozart Effect, Cognitive Dissonance, and the Pleasure of Music, Perlovsky, Cabanac, Bonniot-Cabanac
This paper discusses the role of music in accumulating new knowledge
Dear John,
Very interesting. Please explain connections between cognitive dissonance and Kierkegaard's Either/Or
John, excellent !
Very few people appreciate such a strong morbid power of cognitive dissonance. Even majority of scientists studying cognitive dissonance do not appreciate that it is a very powerful mechanism against knowledge. Very few ask a question, how accumulation of knowledge is possible? how human evolution is possible, if knowledge is stressful?
Excellent point!
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