Let's suppose the following:

A and B are mutually inconsistent (in other words, A and B can't both be true)

Common sense says A. In other words, it feels like A is "obviously" true.

Science, from what you have heard, says B. (Assume the source is something you generally trust, but not a primary source)

Do you:

1. Accept A as being true
or
2. Accept B as being true
or
3. Try to track down the scientific study in which B is shown, and actually read said study (Note that this option is, obviously, more work than 1 or 2.)

Common sense.

Science is Tomato is a fruit.
Common Sense is to not to use it in fruit salad.

3.you can't beat irrefutable scientific evidence. But you have to do the research if the source is not reputable.

Science, always. Science can be sometimes counterintuitive, for example take relativity or quantum mechanics.

AND REMEMBER EVERYONE:

Science is not a Liberal conspiracy.

With the "(Assume the source is something you generally trust, but not a primary source) "-part in play, that's probably option 2.

I'd LIKE to say I'd pick option 3, but to be honest most of the time the only legible part of a scientific study to me is the summary at the end. The meat of the matter is usually written specifically for the panel of experts doing peer review and without the necessary background in the subject, the reader's usually not in a good position to judge whether a study makes a valid point or not.

Of course, science hardly ever says "the outcome is B". It tends to say: "the outcome is B in a scenario where factors X, Y and Z all apply". Which makes it difficult to accept as being "true" since subsequent studies frequently add a ton of caveats and exceptions.

Anyway, I'd personally pick option 2a, for the most part. That is, accept what science says is true assuming it's had some time to be verified and have the various caveats and nuances be brought to light.

Eventually, with luck, a lot of B eventually slips into "common sense". Common sense used to say the Earth was flat. These days, that's not the case any longer, but it took some time to catch up.

One person's "common sense" is another person's "foolishness". Whereas good science is as impartial as anything involving humans can be.

Common sense? NO WAY! With me being a complete asshat, I'll stick to science, thankyouverymuch!

Common sense is to replicate the results of any scientific study, if the results can't be replicated it is pseudoscience at best.

Science with common sense applied.

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Mostly option 2. With the obvious caveat of the source being known for not over-sensationalizing scientific reports and being fairly accurate with it as it tones it down for layman understanding.

3 is out for most people, since anything in the hard sciences quickly goes into terminology and assumes knowledge that most people probably don't have. (A few semesters of physics in college ain't going to cut it a lot of the time.) If you're talking about the so called soft sciences then you get into the whole correlation =\= causation thing, and abundance of factors weighing in, and things get less concrete and more blurry.
The direct testing part of it isn't even feasible for the average Joe, unless its about the most basic of things like people test in high school physics labs.


As for common sense?... The other day I was playing Mass Effect 3 MP, and commented about how comical the enemy getting tossed about by my shotgun was, even if it wasn't accurate scientifically.

The guy I was playing with then tried to tell me that it worked like hydraulics do, and since it hit with a wider area it was exerting more force... I rolled my eyes and tried to correct him, but in the end I don't think he bought it.

So yeah, common sense dictated (to this guy anyway) that a shotgun could throw someone across the room Hollywood style, even if it didn't throw the guy firing the gun.

Hell, they even did this on Mythbusters with a freaking pig. Shot it and it hardly budged. They probably shot more pigs than I care to count over the years, and ballistics dummies, and whatever else.



On a side note, GOG's spellcheck tried to correct Mythbusters... one of the options was Bushmasters. kay?