The curse of knowledge

Can knowing too much cripple our ability to communicate effectively with others?

Absolutely.

In 1990, Elizabeth Newton, a Stanford University graduate student studied a simple game in which she assigned people to one of two roles: “tapper” or “listener.” Tappers were asked to pick a well-known song, such as “Happy Birthday,” and tap out the rhythm on a table. The listeners had to guess the song.

Before the experiment started, Newton asked the tappers to predict how many of their songs would be guessed correctly. They said 50%. Over the course of Newton’s experiment, 120 songs were tapped out. Listeners guessed only three of the songs correctly: a success ratio of 2.5%. The tappers got their message across one time in 40, but they thought they would get it across one time in two. Why?

When a tappers tap, it’s impossible for them to avoid hearing the tune playing along to their taps. Meanwhile, all the listener hears is a weird Morse code — tock tock tock… tock, tock, tock…

Well-informed people tend to assume everyone has the same information, making it difficult to get their message across because they forget what is like to not know the things they know. They struggle to understand their audience’s mind. This phenomenon is known as The Curse of Knowledge

Lots of us have expertise in particular areas. Becoming an expert in something means that we become more and more fascinated by nuance and complexity. That’s when the curse of knowledge kicks in, and we start to forget what it’s like not to know what we know. — Chip and Dan Heath

While expertise in your field can increase your confidence in your ability to share your ideas, it can also hinder your ability to do it effectively. If you’re unaware of this knowledge gap between you and your audience, how you communicate your ideas might end up confusing your audience or worse, making them feel stupid, resulting in them tuning out and disengaging with your content.

You can avoid the negative effects of the curse of knowledge by questioning your assumptions of what you think your audience knows, empathizing with their knowledge, and giving them the tools they need to understand what it is you’re talking about. Here are five strategies you can use to bridge the knowledge gap and make you a more effective communicator:

Know your audience: Try to know how much they know. If you’re talking to a friend or colleague, assess the extent of their knowledge before starting your explanation. If you’re talking to potential customers, ask a few questions before pitching them.

Use simple language: Don’t hide behind jargon and complex terminology. Use simple language and clear examples to make your point easier to understand even with limited knowledge.

Tell stories: Stories can make information more relatable and memorable. Relate complex concepts to familiar experiences. Analogies and metaphors can also make abstract ideas more concrete and understandable. Stories organize facts. If you give people facts, they won’t remember the facts. But if you give them a story, they’ll remember the facts of the story.

Show, don’t tell. A picture can be worth a thousand words. Instead of a lengthy explanation, see if you can create a visual, a graph, or an illustration that conveys the same content in a more accessible way.

Get Feedback: Ask friends, family, or your own audience to review your content and provide honest feedback

There is an added benefit to simplifying your explanations: simplification reinforces your own knowledge. If you can’t explain an idea, concept, or process without using complicated jargon or abstract language, you probably don’t understand it as well as you think you do. Also, when you simplify, you create your own version of the material, which makes it easier to remember and form connections with other ideas.

Being aware of the curse of knowledge is the first step; actively trying to avoid it and improving your own learning process is the second. Actively fighting this curse will improve your communication skills and deepen your understanding and retention of information

This conscious effort to bridge the knowledge gap can help you build stronger connections, attract a wider audience, and cultivate an inclusive environment for more meaningful interactions — win, win, win.