ABSTRACT
The notion of acting in a common-sense manner is so ingrained with most people that they cannot seem to help themselves in labeling the behaviors of others that breach their own standards of “obvious” courses of action as violations of common sense. In this chapter, perceived violations of common sense, referred to as “uncommon sense,” are discussed. Uncommon sense involves a violation of common sense (from one’s particular viewpoint) and the inability to utilize knowledge properly in warranted situations. In an attempt to explain why uncommon sense is so prevalent a number of impediments to common sense are reviewed. The impediments to be discussed are: the inability of people to learn (failure to learn); the lack of formal higher education; overly emotional and irrational fear; believing in weird things, such as pseudoscience, superstitions, and other oddities; and ignorance and stupidity. There are so many people committing social acts of uncommon sense that “awards” (i.e., Darwin Awards; Stella Awards) have been established to acknowledge their uncommon-sense behavior. A number of specific examples of uncommon sense are discussed to highlight the fact that millions of people violate a variety of common-sense notions on a daily basis.
