The Power of the Pentatonic Scale

Via

Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale using audience participation at the event "Notes Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus" from the 2009 World Science Festival.

Do people instinctively know the sound patterns of the pentatonic scale? Is there a base level of musical knowledge in all of us, just waiting to be tapped? Or is the pentatonic scale simply so common in Western music that it has become ingrained in all of our minds? (Source)