The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias in which a better informed person finds it difficult to think about a problem from the perspective of a less informed person, unconsciously assuming that others share the background knowledge needed to understand them. The term was introduced by the economists Colin Camerer, George Loewenstein and Martin Weber in a 1989 paper examining how it can produce inefficiencies in economic settings such as market transactions and communication between experts and non-experts. The bias is frequently cited in discussions of teaching and technical communication, since experts who have long since forgotten what it is like not to know a subject often struggle to explain it clearly to beginners.
Facts
Core ClaimThe bias makes it hard for an expert, such as a teacher or a specialist writer, to reconstruct what a novice does not yet know, since once a person understands something they struggle to model the mind of someone who does not. 1 First Described Year Classification
Type of Phenomenon Connections
In Branch
Source Wikipedia: Curse of knowledge
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Curse of knowledge
Wikimedia Foundationlead paragraph, definition
The curse of knowledge, also called the curse of expertise or expert's curse, is a cognitive bias that occurs when a person who has specialized knowledge assumes that others share in that knowledge.
lead section, defining sentence
The curse of knowledge, also called the curse of expertise or expert's curse, is a cognitive bias that occurs when a person who has specialized knowledge assumes that others share in that knowledge.
origin/history passage
The term "curse of knowledge" was coined in a 1989 Journal of Political Economy article by economists Colin Camerer, George Loewenstein, and Martin Weber.
lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias in which a better informed person finds it difficult to think about a problem from the perspective of a less informed person, unconsciously assuming that others share the background knowledge needed to understand them.
In Branch: Cognitive Psychology, Categories
Wikipedia article 'Curse of knowledge' is filed under Category:Cognitive biases.
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