You Explained It Perfectly. They Heard Something Else

You explained it carefully. You chose your words. You went slowly. You checked whether they were following. And at the end, they nodded, and they repeated back something completely different from what you said. Logan follows the curse of knowledge — the finding that once you know something, you cannot imagine not knowing it — through Elizabeth Newton's tappers and listeners, the nod that is the enemy of understanding, and the private meanings hiding inside shared words. What was observed? Experts overestimate how much novices will understand; tappers guessed about half the listeners would recognize the tune, when in fact only about one in forty did. How was it measured? Camerer, Loewenstein and Weber (1989) on the curse of knowledge; Newton (1990) on tappers and listeners. Why is it important? Most misunderstandings are not failures of effort or attention — they are failures of shared ground. What explanations are supported? The curse of knowledge plus the politeness nod. What remains unknown? How much the curse varies with expertise and topic familiarity. Sources: Camerer, Loewenstein and Weber (1989); Newton (1990).