Steven Blau weighs in on the matter over at Physics Today Blogs [Update: I think the real value in Blau's piece is in the link to an earlier article by Murray Gibson]. Here's Blau:
It hardly raises an eyebrow when someone proclaims that physicists are an arrogant lot. The topic recurs periodically at the Physics Today lunch table and even was the subject of a February 2003 Opinion piece that J. Murray Gibson wrote for the magazine. Gibson took the arrogance of physicists as a given and often helpful quality, but he argued that it had its negative consequences as well.
I think I see where the notion of the arrogant physicist comes from.
Don't forget to read the push-back in the comments!
Physicists are far more thickheaded than arrogant.
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