How I Binge-Watched Love is Blind While My Friends Chased Nobel Prize Dreams

A Data Science and Social Justice Perspective

Ah, September. The time of year when I start eagerly anticipating next month’s Nobel Prize announcements. The time of year when I wonder if any of my college friends who are legitimate contenders will win based on the decades of work that they did while I was at home watching Love is Blind. It’s also the time of year when I ask “how many white men will win this year?”

Who Wins the Nobel Prize

The vast number of news articles, blogs, research studies, class projects, and dinner table rants about the lack of diversity among Nobel Prize winners is almost… Nobel-worthy. At this point, it’s easy to come by statistics like:

• Across the chemistry, medicine/physiology, and physics prizes, 3.8% have gone to women.
• Across the literature and peace prizes, 15.3% have gone to women.

Makes sense, right? I mean, dudes are more science-y, and women are more peaceful and words-y.

THAT’S SARCASM, people. I don’t remotely believe that… even if the prize selection committees do.

Here’s another fun tidbit. Of the Nobel Prizes given in the three scientific fields, guess how many went to Black people? Zero.

This isn’t news to most of us. And yet despite widespread awareness, the situation persists. This is so often the case with social justice issues.

Why is the Nobel Prize a Social Justice Issue?

So many reasons! The most proximate is that meritorious individuals from minoritized and marginalized groups are being overlooked during the selection process.

More broadly, the lack of diversity and inclusion throughout the hierarchy of an academic or professional field carries significant implications. Here are two.

1. Diverse representation in a field is essential to ensuring that its outputs/products, whether tangible or intangible, do not harm marginalized individuals and ideally rectify historical inequities.
2. There is a huge benefit achieved when individuals from marginalized groups look at high levels of a field and see people with whom they share identity characteristics. It bolsters their ability to imagine themselves in such positions in the future. It prompts the creation of ambitious goals and further effort towards them. Just google “possible selves” as a starting point.

You might already understand the profound impact and widespread influence of the Nobel Prizes. If not, a quick glance at the Wikipedia page listing other awards colloquially deemed “the Nobel Prize of… <insert some field>” should provide some clarity.

By the Way, What About Economics

Some of you will have noticed that I have mentioned the Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, Medicine/Physiology, Physics, Peace, and Literature… without any mention of economics. Why? Well, the Nobel Prize in Economics is not a Nobel Prize.

Really.

Every time I spill this tea, economists around me… spill their coffee.

While administered by the Nobel Foundation, the economics prize is not, technically, a Nobel Prize. The Nobel Prizes are the five prizes originally endowed by Alfred Nobel. The economics prize is actually the “Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.” Instead of being Norwegian and endowed in 1901 like the others, the economics prize is Swedish and was established in 1969.

Make sure to share this with your economist friends so that you can be as popular as I am.

What Should We Do?

The Nobel Prize holds significant weight, yet there’s a glaring overrepresentation of white men amongst its laureates. As I previously mentioned, the issue isn’t a lack of awareness. It’s the outcome of biased selection processes. We must dig deep into these mechanisms and strategize ways to influence and hold the stakeholders accountable.

Unfortunately, this is difficult because Nobel Prize selection processes are cloudier than Seattle weather. One reason for this murkiness is the Nobel Foundation’s preference for secrecy. Consequently, there seems to be no definitive scholarly account — or any single source for that matter — that comprehensively describes the complex selection mechanisms.

Guess what, though? Some collaborators and I are on a mission to demystify the process. We’re crafting a comprehensive guide detailing the ins and outs of the Nobel Prizes, including data on the thousands of specific people who have been involved over the years, from nominators and nominees to selection committees and governing bodies. This will allow us to better understand the power structures at play. This is work in progress. We’re still connecting the dots, so keep an eye out. And while you wait, remember: if they ever start awarding Nobel Prizes for procrastination, I would win, but I’d probably pick up my award later.

Your neighbor,

Chad