# What is your weakest sense? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 4, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011 "2019-04-04T00:03:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/21 "2019-04-04T11:35:57Z")
Smell, which at times is a blessing. This lack has often had me wondering, what would it be like to have a dog’s sense of smell? What if I had a jacobson’s organ, and could taste smells like a cat? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/22 "2019-04-04T11:42:09Z")
I’ve been smoking a pack or more a day since I was 15. You could have diarrhoea in my nose and I wouldn’t be able to smell it. But please don’t do that. Why would you want to do that, that’s just gross. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/23 "2019-04-04T12:29:22Z")
I have some pretty weak ‘sauce’. According to the lil’wrekker. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/24 "2019-04-04T12:32:24Z")
Hearing. I hate going out to bars and other busy social locations simply because I have so much trouble understanding what others are saying. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/25 "2019-04-04T13:02:54Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > I’m surprised to see so many with an impaired sense of smell—usually, when I tell people about my anosmia, they appear like they’ve never heard of it (the condition, not the word) at all. Me too! I must have had a sense of smell as a kid, because I remember the smell of my “other” grandma’s house. (Mom tells me that smell was booze and cigarettes). I also realized the other day that I remember what Cocoa Puffs smell like! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/26 "2019-04-04T13:18:22Z")
Hearing. It used to be exceptional, but for some reason my left ear is noticeably better than my right ear. I suspect this is from using white noise every night to sleep and sleeping on my left side, but that’s just a guess. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/27 "2019-04-04T14:16:06Z")
It’s almost a tossup between hearing and vision. My right eye is nearly useless, the result of a botched cataract surgery followed by a second to repair it which weakened the retina to the point it detached followed by a failed surgery to attach it, followed by a successful one which, however, left a drop of oil inside the eyeball. It could be removed but another surgery would likely cause another detachment. My hearing is gradually getting worse. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/28 "2019-04-04T15:19:15Z")
Definitely vision, though my ability to withstand pain is amazingly unreal. I feel pain, but it just does not bother me very much. I’m aware of it, but I’m able to put it out of my mind. It’s probably going to be the cause of my death some day. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/29 "2019-04-04T15:50:23Z")
I forget the comedienne who said it, but > [@](#): > > I can’t hear, and I can’t see. Thank God I can still drive! I am blind in my left eye, and have about 10% hearing loss in one ear (darn you, measles). Since 50% \> 10% I am going with “Vision”. > [@](#): > > my ability to withstand pain is amazingly unreal. Pro tip - this is not a good thing to have in your medical chart. It leads doctors to say things like “let’s try another discogram and see if your spine is any better”. At least with patients who are dumb enough to go along with it. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/30 "2019-04-04T15:58:12Z")
I voted I don’t know. My vision was pretty bad, but then I got laser eye surgery, so not any more. Humans in general have a weak sense of smell compared to other animals, but I don’t feel like that’s really the answer you’re looking for, because if it were that would be the obvious answer for almost all people. And I can’t say they’re all equal, because I think I’m more sensitive to temperature than most people. But I don’t think “they’re all roughly equal except for one” translates to “more than one” … maybe literally, but it doesn’t seem like it fits the spirit of the answer. So that was my thought process. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/31 "2019-04-04T16:27:28Z")
A problem with herniated disks a while back has left me with nerve damage affecting my right index and middle fingers, so I went with touch. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/32 "2019-04-04T16:49:37Z")
Hearing for me. My hearing (as tested when I was a child) was at least average, if not a bit better than average, but then, I went to a Motorhead concert when I was in college, in a small venue, where we were less than 20 feet away from the amps. Me being young, and it being the 1980s, there were no earplugs involved. My ears rang for two days afterwards, and my hearing was never the same. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/33 "2019-04-04T16:58:14Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Fashion Nice! I voted for hearing because that’s the one that’s declining and annoying me. A lot of the time I’m stuffed up just enough that it deadens my sense of smell, but the basic sense is OK when my head is clear. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/34 "2019-04-04T17:01:31Z")
Extra. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/35 "2019-04-04T17:30:30Z")
Something else or the equally popular “it depends”. My hearing is good until you put me in something like a warehouse with competing noises; then I find it hard to differentiate. My vision is excellent unless I’m looking through a car windshield in the dark; my rods and cones recover a little funky with tiny bits of light through glass. Touch I am great except for my left side since the stroke; same with temp. All of mine are probably above average except in certain common circumstances where I fall way below normal… ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/36 "2019-04-04T17:34:46Z")
I’d say smell. My eyesight is poor but I have glasses so there isn’t anything that I’m not seeing but everyone else is. But my wife regularly asks about a smell and I just shrug. Conversely, I regularly get annoyed by some minor background sound (dripping, etc) and my wife wonders how on earth I even noticed it much less enough to be bothered by it. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/37 "2019-04-04T17:54:30Z")
Proprioception/kinesthetic sense. I’m good with fine motor control, but terrible with large movements. I can’t even do a somersault, and never could, even as a kid. Vision would probably be up there too–I’m blind as a bat without my contacts. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/38 "2019-04-04T18:06:20Z")
Propriety. Gets me in trouble from time to time. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/39 "2019-04-04T18:27:10Z")
I voted chronoception because I lose track of time very easily, but I feel I should give a shout-out to smell, since my sense of smell is weird - I seem to smell chemicals as much as scents. Which is to say that I’ve never smelled a perfume that didn’t smell like a nasty chemical mix, and some natural smells slip right past me without triggering my chemical sensometer. I’m also quite nearsighted (though fine with glasses) and I think my hearing is starting to go a little, but that’s nothing compared to the fact that I never have any real sense for how much time has passed. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011/40 "2019-04-04T18:34:06Z")
Hearing. I’ve had too many things go boom too close to my ears. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-weakest-sense/832011.md?page=3)