General knowledge, as defined in differential psychology, is any collection of information that is gathered gradually, knowledge that is valued by cultures, is circulated in general or everyday media and is accessible without formal education. General knowledge covers a wide array of subjects that are available to laypeople without having to undergo in-depth study or extensive training.
Research has shown that people who are highly knowledgeable in a certain domain of knowledge also tend to be knowledgeable in many other domains. There are twenty such domains that have come to be identified although researchers admit that there may be more. These twenty domains have been grouped together via factor analysis into larger domains, namely; current affairs, fashion, family, physical health and recreation, arts, and science. These six factors are also highly intercorrelated which leads to the higher-order factor of general knowledge.