Portrayal of Physicists in Fictional Works

In his article "Portrayal of Physicists in Fictional Works" Daniel Dotson analyzes how physicists (including professors, teachers, physics students, and amateur physicists) are portrayed in novels, films, and television programs. Eighty characters are analyzed to see if they possessed any of ten personality traits: obsessive, having major mental health problems, withdrawn, brave, timid, socially inept, arrogant, too career-focused, out of touch, and stubborn. Dotson lists a summary of the characters with their traits followed by an overview of the traits and select examples of how characters possessed that trait. Male and female characters are compared to determine if one gender received a better portrayal (i.e., fewer negative personality traits) than another. In addition, characters possessing several personality traits are described in detail, as well as the few characters not possessing any of the traits. What image comes to mind when thinking of a physicist? A mad scientist bent on global domination? An absent-minded professor? Eighty fictional physicists are examined in the article at hand, including researchers, professors, astrophysicists, space scientists, and geophysicists in twenty-eight novels, twenty-one films, and a television series. Characters' actions and stated facts about them determined if they possessed one or more personality traits: obsessive, having major mental problems, withdrawn, brave, timid, socially inept, too career-focused, out of touch, arrogant, and stubborn. Gender differences were also explored. The texts' subjects were not necessarily on science. Aliens, time travel, golf balls, exploring space, parallel worlds, and disasters are example topics. A character had to have enough of a presence in order to gather information on their personality. A brief appearance does not give a good sense of personality. Seven characters are portrayals of people who actually existed: Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, Albert Einstein, Lieserl Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Erwin Schrodinger (two portrayals). Lieserl Einstein, a pre-marriage child to Einstein and his first wife, may not have survived childhood. Her being a scientist is itself purely fictional. One character is an alien trying to pass himself off as a human physicist. His actions as both a physicist and a human may give insight into the view of how physicists act. Eighty characters were examined to see which, if any, of a selection of personality traits they possessed. The personality traits are subjectively assigned to the characters based upon their actions and statements about and by them. The personality traits are not meant to be an official psychological assessment and are based solely upon their fitting into the concept of that trait.