{"id":45716,"date":"2021-08-30T09:23:02","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T13:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=45716"},"modified":"2021-09-06T10:44:21","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T14:44:21","slug":"the-curse-of-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curse of Knowledge: Blinded by Expertise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is the curse of knowledge? How does it get in the way of effective communication?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes we’re blinded by the curse-of-knowledge bias, assuming that others know what we know. As a result, we fail to communicate effectively and compellingly. When we learn to get around this cognitive bias<\/a>, we can craft messages that are clear and convincing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more to learn how the curse of knowledge hampers communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Curse of Knowledge Gets in the Way<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Anyone can apply these six principles to craft a sticky message\u2014they\u2019re mostly common sense\u2014yet a majority of people produce opaque, mind-numbing prose instead. The reason people don\u2019t take simple steps to make their message compelling is that they\u2019re blinded by a cognitive bias known as \u201cthe curse of knowledge.\u201d<\/strong> Instead of keeping their message simple and concrete, they lapse into abstractions because they wrongly assume their listeners have the same level of knowledge or expertise as they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1990, Stanford Ph.D. student Elizabeth Newton illustrated the curse of knowledge with a study in which she asked subjects to choose a simple tune, such as \u201cJingle Bells,\u201d from a list and tap out the rhythm on a table. She assigned other people to try to figure out the tune being tapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tappers were shocked to learn that listeners guessed the song correctly only 2.5 percent of the time. Because they were hearing the song in their heads as they tapped (knowledge the listener didn\u2019t possess), they thought their tapping was making the song perfectly clear. Because they had the curse-of-knowledge bias, they couldn\u2019t imagine the perspective of the listener who wasn\u2019t \u201chearing\u201d the same song. Once you know something, it\u2019s hard to remember that others don\u2019t. Teachers obviously have to overcome this mismatch in knowledge between speaker and listener, but everyone with a message faces it to some degree. For instance, a CEO must translate her company\u2019s strategy of maximizing<\/a> shareholder value into clear terms for employees. The way to do it is to transform your message by using the six principles as a checklist.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, President John F. Kennedy sidestepped the curse-of-knowledge bias in 1961 when he presented an unexpected goal in simple, concrete, credible terms: He wanted to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. He could have said, \u201cour mission is to become the international leader … through maximum innovation\u2026\u201d. But he made his idea sticky, and its impact was historic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the curse of knowledge? How does it get in the way of effective communication? Sometimes we’re blinded by the curse-of-knowledge bias, assuming that others know what we know. As a result, we fail to communicate effectively and compellingly. When we learn to get around this cognitive bias, we can craft messages that are clear and convincing. Read more to learn how the curse of knowledge hampers communication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":45721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,104,9],"tags":[459],"class_list":["post-45716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-marketing","category-psychology","tag-made-to-stick","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Curse of Knowledge: Blinded by Expertise - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We're often blinded by the curse-of-knowledge bias\u2014assuming others know what we know. Here is how this assumption can derail your message.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Curse of Knowledge: Blinded by Expertise\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We're often blinded by the curse-of-knowledge bias\u2014assuming others know what we know. Here is how this assumption can derail your message.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-30T13:23:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-06T14:44:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-curse-of-knowledge.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"375\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\"},\"headline\":\"The Curse of Knowledge: Blinded by Expertise\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-30T13:23:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-09-06T14:44:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/\"},\"wordCount\":423,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-curse-of-knowledge.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Made to Stick\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Marketing\",\"Psychology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/\",\"name\":\"The Curse of Knowledge: Blinded by Expertise - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-curse-of-knowledge.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-30T13:23:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-09-06T14:44:21+00:00\",\"description\":\"We're often blinded by the curse-of-knowledge bias\u2014assuming others know what we know. Here is how this assumption can derail your message.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-curse-of-knowledge.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-curse-of-knowledge.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":375},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Curse of Knowledge: Blinded by Expertise\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\",\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\"},\"description\":\"Elizabeth has a lifelong love of books. She devours nonfiction, especially in the areas of history, theology, and philosophy. A switch to audiobooks has kindled her enjoyment of well-narrated fiction, particularly Victorian and early 20th-century works. She appreciates idea-driven books\u2014and a classic murder mystery now and then. Elizabeth has a Substack and is writing a book about what the Bible says about death and hell.\",\"sameAs\":[\"rina@shortform.com\"],\"award\":[\"Contributions to joint task force efforts (FBI)\",\"Contributions to Special Operations Division (DOJ & DEA)\",\"Efforts to fight the war on drugs (NSA)\",\"Contributions to Operation Storm Front (US Customs Service)\"],\"knowsAbout\":[\"History\",\"Theology\",\"Government\"],\"jobTitle\":\"Senior SEO Writer\",\"worksFor\":\"Shortform\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/elizabeth\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Curse of Knowledge: Blinded by Expertise - Shortform Books","description":"We're often blinded by the curse-of-knowledge bias\u2014assuming others know what we know. Here is how this assumption can derail your message.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Curse of Knowledge: Blinded by Expertise","og_description":"We're often blinded by the curse-of-knowledge bias\u2014assuming others know what we know. Here is how this assumption can derail your message.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-08-30T13:23:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-09-06T14:44:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":375,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-curse-of-knowledge.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Elizabeth Whitworth","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elizabeth Whitworth","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/"},"author":{"name":"Elizabeth Whitworth","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13"},"headline":"The Curse of Knowledge: Blinded by Expertise","datePublished":"2021-08-30T13:23:02+00:00","dateModified":"2021-09-06T14:44:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/"},"wordCount":423,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-curse-of-knowledge.jpg","keywords":["Made to Stick"],"articleSection":["Communication","Marketing","Psychology"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/","name":"The Curse of Knowledge: Blinded by Expertise - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-curse-of-knowledge.jpg","datePublished":"2021-08-30T13:23:02+00:00","dateModified":"2021-09-06T14:44:21+00:00","description":"We're often blinded by the curse-of-knowledge bias\u2014assuming others know what we know. Here is how this assumption can derail your message.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-curse-of-knowledge.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-curse-of-knowledge.jpg","width":750,"height":375},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-curse-of-knowledge\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Curse of Knowledge: Blinded by Expertise"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13","name":"Elizabeth Whitworth","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Elizabeth Whitworth"},"description":"Elizabeth has a lifelong love of books. She devours nonfiction, especially in the areas of history, theology, and philosophy. A switch to audiobooks has kindled her enjoyment of well-narrated fiction, particularly Victorian and early 20th-century works. She appreciates idea-driven books\u2014and a classic murder mystery now and then. Elizabeth has a Substack and is writing a book about what the Bible says about death and hell.","sameAs":["rina@shortform.com"],"award":["Contributions to joint task force efforts (FBI)","Contributions to Special Operations Division (DOJ & DEA)","Efforts to fight the war on drugs (NSA)","Contributions to Operation Storm Front (US Customs Service)"],"knowsAbout":["History","Theology","Government"],"jobTitle":"Senior SEO Writer","worksFor":"Shortform","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/elizabeth\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-curse-of-knowledge.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45716"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47885,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45716\/revisions\/47885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}