Human mind is a paradoxical phenomenon. On the one hand, he is always thrown into the debate arena when there is supposedly a lack of him. On the other hand, the discussants always serve up human sense by pointing out that it is healthy, i.e. lively, present and present. The phrase has been floating around the public for a long, long time and is used by people of all political persuasions. A very superficial quick Google search shows that the federal chairman of the Free Voters, Hubert Aiwanger, likes to invoke common sense, as does the former Federal Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP). Konrad Adenauer, Angela Merkel and even former transport minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) have appealed to common sense at least once. Meanwhile, in countless newspaper comments, its absence is attributed to the respective subject of the reporting: the Greens, artificial intelligence or the entire glyphosate debate. But, let’s ask ourselves a very basic question: What is this common sense anyway – and does it reveal itself when it is present?
Social scientists Mark Whiting and Duncan Watts from the University of Pennsylvania have just in the specialist journal PNAS published a work, which deals with these questions. First, the short answer they give: Common sense is presumably something different for every person. These are views and beliefs that are important to an individual and therefore seem obvious. From this, people deduce that most others should or should see it that way too. This applies regardless of factors such as age, gender, income or political opinion. Common sense would therefore be something like the personal truth of individual people, which the rest of the world could please follow.
Only a few supposedly generally accepted opinions are actually shared by many
The two scientists presented 2,046 subjects with a total of 4,407 statements that were considered examples of common sense. Strictly speaking, the researchers asked about “common sense”. This expression is not 100 percent congruent with German “common sense”; the English expression emphasizes more strongly that a certain statement is common knowledge. However, both terms are used similarly in debates.
The statements that the researchers had evaluated covered a wide range. Among them were pure statements (“Triangles have three sides”), aphorisms (“Rudeness is the strength of the little man”) and also recommendations for action (“Alcohol should not be sold to fans at sporting events”). The test subjects had to evaluate whether something was generally accepted, or whether they agreed with a statement, and whether that also applied to most other people. It became apparent that only a small number of the statements presented were accepted by more than a small number of people.
As “common sense” or common sense in the sense that a large majority shares a belief, almost only statements about objectively true things can be considered, such as the thing with the triangle and the three sides. In the end, the message remains that everyone calls what fits into their own worldview as common sense.