Curse of Knowledge — the research, and how to use it at events

The research, plainly

Elizabeth Newton's tapper study: people tapped famous songs and predicted listeners would name half of them. Listeners got about one in forty. The tune playing in the tapper's head was inaudible to everyone else — and the tapper couldn't believe it.

The receipt: Newton, 1990

What it means for events

Every expert on your stage hears the song. The audience hears tapping. Speaker prep isn't slide polish — it's systematically rebuilding the talk from what the room knows, not from what the speaker knows.

Where to run it

Speaker coaching

Open every prep session with one question: 'What does this audience know on minute zero?' Build forward from that, ruthlessly.

Demo design

The demo that thrills the product team confuses the buyer. Script it for the person seeing it first, not the person who built it.

Internal events

Leadership's strategy deck is written in leadership's shorthand. Translate before broadcasting — the org can't follow taps.

Seen in the wild

The tapper study escaped academia through Made to Stick and became speaker-coaching canon — every 'so what, who cares' exercise in presentation training is an attempt to cure the curse Newton measured.

Related concepts

FramingSame facts, different words, different decision.Ambiguity AversionPeople don't skip your event because they don't like it. They skip it because they're not sure about it.Serial PositionPeople remember the first thing and the last thing. The middle needs help.

All 115 concepts in the Library →

Now use it

Score your own event against principles like this one — or make the whole vocabulary official.

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