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“Everybody knows that…” But how do we know what we know? What does it mean to be healthy or successful? Where do our ideas about relationships come from? And in the age of AI, how do we know what’s real?
Everybody Knows That explores the often invisible “scripts of truth” that shape how we understand the world and ourselves. From questions about nutrition, psychedelics, and happiness to assumptions about intimacy, the ideal body, and parenting, many of the things we take to be obvious or natural are shaped by cultural narratives that often go unnoticed.
Drawing on sociology, media analysis, and real-life examples, sociologist Michelle Shir-Wise examines how these scripts are formed, how they spread, and how we’ve come to take them for granted. The book explores the role of science, history, media, and technology—including artificial intelligence—in shaping our notions of truth.
Thought-provoking and deeply relevant to contemporary life, Everybody Knows That invites us to reconsider familiar beliefs, become more aware of the forces that shape them, and question what we accept as true.
Michelle Shir-Wise, PhD, is a sociologist and author whose work explores the subtle cultural forces that shape how we think, feel, and understand ourselves. Her research focuses on media, consumer culture, time use, and the construction of the self in contemporary society. She is the author of Time, Freedom and the Self and has published academic articles and presented at international conferences. In her writing, she aims to bridge scholarly insight and everyday experience, inviting readers to question what they take for granted and to see familiar ideas in a new light.
PROLOGUE: How Do We Know?
PART I: Sources of Knowledge and the Search for Truth
Chapter 1: The Search for Truth in Science
Chapter 2: When Science Meets the Media: The Dissemination of Knowledge
Chapter 3: Truth in a Digital World: Social Media and News Sources
Chapter 4: History and Narratives
PART II: Truth and the Self
Chapter 5: How We Should Look
Chapter 6: How We Should Act
Chapter 7: How We Should Feel
PART III: The Self and Others
Chapter 8: Relationships
Chapter 9: Stereotypical Scripts of Truth
PART IV: Where Do We Go from Here?
Chapter 10: Seeing Is Believing
Chapter 11: Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Truths
Chapter 12: Dare to Question