Curse Of Knowledge

What is the curse of knowledge?

The curse of knowledge is difficulty setting aside what one knows when judging the perspective of someone who lacks that information. In experiments by Camerer, Loewenstein, and Weber, informed participants’ predictions of less-informed people were pulled toward their own extra knowledge.

Example: explaining something to a beginner

A teaching illustration is an expert assuming that a beginner understands an unexplained term. A teacher might skip an explanation because the term feels obvious to them, even though it is new to the learner.

Communicating across a knowledge gap

Use a concrete example, explain unfamiliar terms, and ask the learner to show or explain what they understand. Checking a learner’s understanding is a practical safeguard. It should not be described as a proven cure: in the original economic experiments, feedback alone did not remove the bias, although market experience reduced it.

Source: The Curse of Knowledge in Economic Settings: An Experimental Analysis.