← all facts
curse of knowledge
You cannot imagine what it is like not knowing.
A 1990 study by Elizabeth Newton found that individuals possess a 'curse of knowledge' that makes them systematically overestimate how easily others can perceive information they already know.
Instead of being 'fundamentally unable' to estimate difficulty, participants showed a significant cognitive bias that caused them to consistently overestimate the listeners' ability to identify the tapped rhythms.
You act as if the world shares your experience and your information.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Elizabeth Newton, 1990, Stanford University
- What the check found
- The study and author are real, but the claim uses hyperbolic language ('fundamentally unable') that describes the effect as an absolute cognitive failure rather than a measurable bias.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.