ArgumentWhy do similar scientific enterprises garner unequal public approbation? High energy physics attracted considerable attention in the late-twentieth-century United States, whereas condensed matter physics – which occupied the greater proportion of US physicists – remained little known to the public, despite its relevance to ubiquitous consumer technologies. This paper supplements existing accounts of this much remarked-upon prestige asymmetry by showing that popular emphasis on the mundane technological offshoots of condensed matter physics and its focus on human-scale phenomena have rendered it more recondite than its better-known sibling field. News reports about high energy physics emphasize intellectual achievement; reporting on condensed matter physics focuses on technology. And whereas frontier-oriented rhetoric of high energy physics communicates ideals of human potential, discoveries that smack of the mundane highlight human limitations and fail to resonate with the widespread aspirational vision of science – a consequence I call “the purloined letter effect.”

中文翻译：

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美国物理学中的声望不对称：愿望、应用和被盗字母效应

论点为什么类似的科技企业获得了不平等的公众认可？高能物理学在 20 世纪后期的美国引起了相当大的关注，而凝聚态物理学——在美国物理学家中占据了更大的比例——尽管与无处不在的消费技术相关，但仍然鲜为人知。本文补充了对这种广受好评的声望不对称的现有解释，表明人们普遍强调凝聚态物理学的平凡技术分支及其对人类尺度现象的关注，使其比其更知名的同胞领域更加深奥。关于高能物理的新闻报道强调智力成就；凝聚态物理的报道侧重于技术。