Matthew Effect

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The Matthew effect is a sociological thesis about success . Where this effect occurs, current successes arise more from past successes and less from current accomplishments. One reason is the stronger attentions that generate success. This, in turn, opens up resources that make further successes more likely. Small initial advantages of individual actors can grow into big advantages, and a very small number of actors combine the main part of all successes, while the majority remains unsuccessful.

This phenomenon is addressed in some proverbs, e.g. B. “Whoever has, is given to him”, “It always rains where it is already wet” or “The devil always shits on the biggest pile”.

designation

The term "Matthew Effect" alludes to a sentence from the Gospel of Matthew from the parable of the entrusted talents :

“For whoever has it will be given that he may have abundance; but whoever does not have what he has will be taken away. "

- Mt 25,29  LUT (corresponding to: Mt 13,12  LUT ; Mk 4,25  LUT ; Lk 8,18  LUT ; Lk 19,26  LUT )

The original meaning of the parable has nothing in common with its common understanding. The misunderstanding itself confirms the parabolic meaning of the parable : Whoever accepts faith opens up to ever increasing insight. Anyone who does not have it does not understand what he originally received from God as an ability to believe. He misunderstood the parable language of Jesus and only saw nonsensical statements in it or understood them literally because he missed their spiritual meaning.

Scientific citations

The American sociologist Robert K. Merton (1910-2003) operationalized the Matthew effect (as Matthew effect ) as part of his sociology of science considerations mainly on the citation of scientific publications: Known authors are often cited as unknown and are thus even more famous ( success breeds success - success leads to success ). This phenomenon should follow the principle of positive feedback .

Despite the Matthäus effect, according to citation analyzes, the number of citations of a publication decreases after a short increase even with well-known authors with a relatively constant half-life . It is often the case that the most frequently cited articles at the moment show a faster decrease in citations. This can be explained, among other things, by the fact that generally known information is no longer quoted, but only appears with the name of the author or as a mere fact in a text. This phenomenon was treated as a form of uncitedness by Eugene Garfield . Even classics and standard works are usually not cited forever because they will be reissued at some point and reference will be made to the latest edition. It also suggests that the Matthew Effect is more likely to occur with authors than with individual articles.

If the Matthew effect is brought about or reinforced by mutual courtesy quotes from several authors, one speaks of a citation cartel .

The Matthew effect is critically discussed in the context of Open Science , where hierarchies (including publication hierarchies) are to be dismantled and replaced by models of sharing.

Learning theory and sociology of education

In teaching-learning research , the principle states (very briefly) that previous knowledge is an essential predictor of learning success . The more prior knowledge there is, the greater the benefit the learner can derive from a learning offer made available. Knut Schwippert, Wilfried Bos and Eva-Maria Lankes were able to demonstrate a Matthew effect. According to their observations, high-performing students gain more knowledge from lessons than low-performing students. Existing differences in performance are therefore intensified by teaching. Even among primary school children, there are differences in performance between children from educationally and educationally disadvantaged families; these usually increase over the course of schooling. Compared with 15-year-olds, the effect in primary school children is relatively small. In all countries that participated in both PISA and PIRLS / IGLU , it was found that the differences in performance between children from different social classes are greater in adolescence than in childhood. This applies to the countries New Zealand, Germany, France, Hungary, Norway, USA, Sweden, Canada, Greece, Czech Republic, Iceland, Netherlands, Italy, Latvia and the Russian Federation.

In other areas, similar effects are referred to as the rich-get-richer principle (the rich get richer ). This usually results in Pareto distributions or some other form of scale laws .

Media theory / sociology

In media studies, too, attempts are being made to establish the Matthew effect and to use it to interpret media phenomena. Just like sociology, for example, the approach deals with inequality and disadvantage in society from a media science perspective. But it does not try to explain the inequality with the effect, but to show how the dissemination or the information / knowledge about the inequality is transported via the media and contribute to the consolidation of these structures.

Heinz Bonfadelli and Thomas N. Friemel see the Matthew Effect in the media as a trend intensifier:

“The media contribute to the intensification of social inequality and to the consolidation of the existing power structures and are therefore hardly agents of social change. An increasing supply of information - for example also through the Internet - does not automatically mean that everyone is well informed, but rather results in information overload. Although the majority of the population is well informed about certain outstanding events, this knowledge remains in many cases rather superficial and often only consists of more or less irrelevant details. "

As an example, the authors cite health policy campaigns (e.g. against tobacco). Here it is often unclear whether the campaigns had a compensatory effect or even increased existing disadvantages.

See also

literature

  • Barbara Hönig, Matthew Effect . In: Christian Fleck and Christian Dayé, Milestones in Sociology . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2020, ISBN 978-3-593-51102-3 , pp. 456–462.
  • Mark Lutter: Who is given? Matthew Effects and Gender Inequalities in the Labor Market for Film Actors. MPIfG Discussion Paper 12/8, Cologne: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, 2012.
  • Robert K. Merton: The Matthew Effect in Science . In: R. K. Merton (Ed.): Development and change of research interests . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1985, ISBN 3-518-57710-7 , pp. 147 f .
  • Robert K. Merton: The Matthew Effect in Science . In: Science . tape 159 , no. 3810 . Washington DC 1968, p. 56–63 ( PDF ; 2.5 MB).
  • Robert K. Merton: The Matthew Effect in Science, II . In: Isis . tape 79 , 1988, pp. 600–623 ( PDF ; 2.22 MB).
  • Harriet Zuckerman : Dynamics and Spread of the Matthew Effect. A little sociological theory of meaning. In: Berlin Journal for Sociology. Vol. 20, 2010, pp. 309-340 [1] .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mark Lutter: Social structures of success: Winner-take-all processes in the creative industries. MPIfG Discussion Paper 12/7. Cologne: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies , 2012, p. 11.
  2. ↑ Matthew 25:29 Commentaries: "For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. Retrieved May 13 2018 .
  3. ↑ Mark 4:25 Commentaries: "For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him." Retrieved May 13, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Schwippert, Bos, Lankes (2003): Heterogeneity and Equal Opportunities at the End of the Fourth Grade in an International Comparison , p. 295. In Bos et al. (2003) First results from IGLU : Student performance at the end of the fourth grade in an international comparison . Münster: Waxmann, ISBN 978-3-8309-1200-2
  5. ↑ Joachim-Felix Leonhardt (Ed.) Media Studies. 1st subband. de Gruyter, 1999, p. 115f
  6. ↑ Betz / Kübler (eds.) Internet Governance- Springer, 2013, p. 207
  7. ^ Heinz Bonfadelli & Thomas N. Friemel: Media Effects Research . UVK Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 2015, p. 548f