The science prizes all have to show that they made a contribution. In fact that can take so long the winners can no longer receive recognition as they need to be alive to be recognised and the process to make sure that the accomplishment is of real impact takes time.

So unless I'm missing something very subtle in the difference between Norway and Sweden in cultural trends, I think it is more the arena of the prize and not Norway's culture that is the problem. The peace prize is often a political one, and as such it suffers from a lack of talent to award it too. The politicians on the whole would not like to see a prize go to a politician of yesteryear and would not like to admit someone on the other side of the political divide did something worthwhile.

Lets face it the Nobel Peace Prize is like a school prize for citizenship. Sure a kid gets it, only because they seem nice but didn't show up every day at school to nab the attendance prize. Nobel Peace Prize should come with a cat poster...