Ccommon sense is not so common: a recent study of the University of Pennsylvania concludes that the concept is “somewhat illusory.” Researchers collected statements from various sources that were described as “common sense” and presented them to subjects. The mixed bag of results suggested that there is “little evidence that more than a small fraction of beliefs are common to more than a small fraction of people”.
It is no surprise that there are few universally shared ideas of what constitutes reason. People have a horse worming drug to cure covid! They think low-traffic neighborhoods are a communist plot and call the police about KFC running out of chicken meat! We all think those other guys are the dumb ones.
If you want to test your own sanity, the Pennsylvania researchers run a online challenge. Despite dark suspicions about my sanity, I was compelled to try, agree or disagree with statements, and then decide whether others would think as I did. Some were easy (“No one wants to get sick”; “Glue is sticky”), but some gave enough opportunity to think and second guess myself. Isn’t it stupid to end a marriage if you don’t love someone? Is “loving people more than they deserve” an “aspect of kindness”? How should I know about the body temperature of cats?
The worst was the maths (which was designed to see if intelligence and common sense were related – not particularly, apparently). I’m 49 and haven’t worked out two-thirds of anything since 1992: I had to draw 60 apples to stumble through a simple fraction, guess full price for a discount toaster, and send my son for help. That exchange ended with me begging him, “Pretend it never happened.”
The verdict? A weak 53/100 on the “commonsensicality” index (maths score not disclosed). Unwilling to accept my worst mark since year 10 physics, I tried again. And again. On the fifth attempt (yes, a total waste of my time), I pushed my score up to 97/100. That’s a win for something, but certainly not sanity.
