Metacognitive Social Sciences

The study of how groups of people collectively think about their own thinking, and how that shared metacognition shapes their culture, communication, and conflicts. It examines phenomena like "groupthink about groupthink," where a committee spends hours discussing how to avoid wasting time in meetings. It analyzes why certain communities develop elaborate jargon to describe their own internal thought processes (e.g., tech bros "circling back" on "mental bandwidth"), and how entire societies can collectively obsess over their own collective obsession (e.g., "the discourse about the discourse").

Example: "The company retreat was a masterclass in metacognitive social sciences. The entire team spent three hours discussing how they could have better discussions. They then scheduled another meeting to discuss the discussion about discussions. No actual work was done, but everyone felt very self-aware."

Metacognitive Social Sciences by Abzugal February 14, 2026