By Malek Mneimne, Ph.D.
“S/he has no common sense.”
I’ve heard the phrase over and over, primarily from frustrated and/or angry people, often in response to something apparently nonsensical like someone riding an elephant the wrong way on a major highway during rush hour or a homeless man claiming to be intellectually superior to everyone. But what is common sense? What isn’t? Do we all have it or not?
Common sense is a broad term. Apart from Paine’s book by the same name, many people seem to think that common sense is some magical guiding light that most people are born with that aids in decision making. The fortunate ones have it, the unfortunate don’t. Conceptually, common sense is based upon an average or typical response. To me, the phrase “s/he has no common sense” indicates that someone did not respond or act in the average, standard, normative, expected, or typical manner.
There are many problems with comparing oneself and others to an average, standard, normative, expected, or typical outcome. Many of these problems have been highlighted in previous blogs. In brief, the major issue is in the definition of these words, in which deviation from the average, standard, normative, expected, or typical is inherent. Simply put, not everyone can be of average height or weight, temperament or personality, cognitive ability, social status; yet, almost all people think they are (see also: Lake Wobegon Effect). That is, by definition, not everyone can have common sense.
To some, a lack of common sense can be earth shattering and awful. “How can s/he be so dumb/worthless? That’s awful, I can’t stand it, they should have the same exact brain as I do.” To this, after refuting ratings of worth, frustration intolerance, awfulizing, and demanding, I say that common sense is a subjective concept. Not everyone will have the same definition of common sense. One person’s idea of common sense may differ from the next person’s idea. Imagine vacationing in a foreign country where you are unfamiliar with the native customs and language. Now would you say you have common sense in that context? You might; however, assuming that you are truly unfamiliar with the culture, then you have little, if any, idea about what is common. Therefore, you would lack common sense in that context.
Although averages can be informative, they do not provide a complete picture by themselves. For any theory to be scientifically accurate, it must take into account both averages and variation, or what statisticians refer to as “error.”