Common sense is not that common: a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania concludes the concept is “somewhat illusory”. Researchers collected statements from various sources that had been described as “common sense” and put them to test subjects. The mixed bag of results suggested there was “little evidence that more than a small fraction of beliefs is common to more than a small fraction of people”.
It’s no surprise that there are few universally shared notions of what stands to reason. People took a horse worming drug to cure Covid! They think low-traffic neighbourhoods are a communist plot and call the police about KFC running out of chicken! We all think those other guys are the stupid ones.
If you would like to test your own common sense, the Pennsylvania researchers are running an online challenge. Despite dark suspicions about my common sense, I was compelled to try, agreeing or disagreeing with statements, then deciding whether others would think like me. Some were easy (“No one wants to get ill”; “Glue is sticky”), but some gave ample opportunity to overthink and second guess myself. Surely it isn’t silly to end a marriage if you don’t love someone? Is “loving people more than they deserve” an “aspect of kindness”? How am I supposed to know anything about the body temperature of cats?
The worst bit was the maths (designed to check if intelligence and common sense are correlated – 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 the full price for a discounted toaster and text my son for help. That exchange ended with me begging him: “Pretend this never happened.”
The verdict? A feeble 53/100 on the “commonsensicality” index (maths score undisclosed). Unwilling to accept my worst mark since year 10 physics, I tried again. And again. By the fifth attempt (yes, a total waste of my time), I had bumped my score up to 97/100. That is a victory for something, but definitely not common sense.
Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist
