conventional wisdom

conventional wisdom (usually uncountable, plural conventional wisdoms)

1. A belief or set of beliefs that is widely accepted, especially one which may be questionable on close examination.
   • 1958, John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society:

     It will be convenient to have a name for the ideas which are esteemed at any time for their acceptability, and it should be a term that emphasizes this predictability. I shall refer to these ideas henceforth as the conventional wisdom.

   • 1971 May 17, “Week’s Watch”, in Time:

     So many Americans accept “zero population growth” as a new canon of conventional wisdom that it comes as a surprise to hear the notion disputed.

   • 2021 July 28, Christian Wolmar, “Forgotten by the railways, but ripe for the exploring”, in RAIL, number 936, page 35:

     Well, during our short staycation at Humberston Fitties, just south of Cleethorpes, we cycled through the very unspoilt Lincolnshire Wolds, which are by no means flat and boring as conventional wisdom about the county suggests.

   • 2022 August 26, Andrew E. Kramer, Anton Troianovski, Helene Cooper, “Ukraine Weighs a Risky Offensive to Break Out of a Stalemate”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Though conventional wisdom has held that stringing out the war would favor Russia, it also carries risks for Mr. Putin, doing more damage to his economy and bringing more Western weaponry to bear […]

• received wisdom