50 Everyday Facts That People Realized Not Everyone Knows

In an academic environment, common knowledge refers to “information generally known to an educated reader, such as widely known facts and dates, and, more rarely, ideas or language,” according to Harvard University. 

This information shouldn’t need a citation backing it up for the average educated reader to understand it. “Widely known scientific and historical facts—such as the molecular structure of water (H2O), or that Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States—generally count as common knowledge. You can include such facts in your writing without citation and without fear of committing plagiarism,” the educational institution further instructs.

Knowing whether something is common knowledge can be tricky. Therefore, Scribbr, a company that provides a range of academic services, suggests asking yourself a few questions before assuming something is common knowledge. Like, for example, ‘Who is my audience, and what can I assume they know?’ In case your audience has knowledge in the same field as you, you probably can get away with assuming they know more than an average person.

If you think your addressee might be surprised by the information you present or question its accuracy, then it probably isn’t common knowledge. Another indicator of information not being known to everyone is if it can’t be easily verified with a quick Google search. No piece of common knowledge has to be dug out of the depths of the internet or other databases.

Knowing when a piece of information is common knowledge or not isn’t only useful in academic environments but also in everyday life. It can help you better communicate with others if you aren’t assuming they know everything you know. It’s easy to fall into this assumption trap, as we can possess a cognitive bias called ‘knowledge curse’ that makes it difficult for us to imagine others not knowing something we know and have learned.

Ironically, the curse of knowledge makes it difficult for people to share their knowledge because they fail to empathize with their level of knowledge. It significantly affects how information is communicated, which can be an issue for educators and experts in particular. They might struggle to convey complex concepts to their audience because they struggle to imagine what it’s like for others not to have the depth of knowledge they do.

Fortunately, the curse of knowledge can be overcome. The first step toward it is to embrace empathy. Practicing perspective-taking and putting ourselves in others’ shoes can help us gauge how to communicate and explain information to others better. Next is simplifying and clarifying the way we communicate with others. Complex ideas should be broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks and illustrated with examples.