Matthew effect
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The Matthew effect alludes to a line spoken by "the Master" in Jesus's parable of the talents in the Christian Bible:
- "For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." (Matthew XXV:29, KJV).
This line is sometimes taken in isolation as claiming "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer": taken in context it asserts that ambition and risk-taking will be rewarded, while those who fail to utilize the talents loaned to them will be punished.
In sociology, Matthew effect was a term coined by Robert K. Merton to describe how, among other things, eminent scientists will often get more credit than a comparatively unknown researcher even if their work is similar; it also means that credit will usually be given to researchers that are already famous: for example, a prize will almost always be awarded to the most senior researcher involved in a project, even if all the work was done by a graduate student. An example is given by the story of the isolation of the antibiotics streptomycin by Albert Schatz in 1943, and the attribution of all the credit, including the award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952, to his supervisor, Selman Waksman.
In education the term Matthew effect has been adopted by Keith Stanovich, a psychologist who has done extensive research on reading and language disabilities. Stanovich used the term to describe a phenomenon that has been observed in research on how new readers acquire the skills to read: Early success in acquiring reading skills usually leads to later successes in reading as the learner grows, while failing to learn to read before the third or fourth year of schooling may be indicative of life-long problems in learning new skills. This is because children who fall behind in reading, read less, increasing the gap between them and their peers. Later, when students need to "read to learn" (where before they were learning to read) their reading difficulty creates difficulty in most other subjects. In this way they fall further and further behind in school, dropping out at a much higher rate than their peers. Because of this they are not able to tap into education as a way to improve their lives, essentially becoming poorer while other become richer.
In social policy the term was introduced by Herman Deleeck. It refers to the phenomenon, widely observed across advanced welfare states, that the middle classes tend to be the main beneficiaries of social benefits and services, even if these are primarily targeted at the poor.
The Matilda effect is the contrary to the Matthew effect: the work of woman in science is often neglected. The Matilda effect was postulated by historian of science Margaret W. Rossiter in 1993.
See also
References
- Merton, Robert K. (1968). The Matthew Effect in Science (PDF). Science 159 (3810), 56-63.
- Merton, Robert K. (1988). The Matthew Effect in Science, II: Cumulative advantage and the symbolism of intellectual property (PDF). ISIS 79, 606-623.
- Mistiaen, Veronique. Time, and the great healer. The Guardian, Saturday 2 November 2002. The history behind the discovery of streptomycin.
- Stanovich, Keith E. (1986). Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individuals Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy (PDF). Reading Research Quarterly 21 (4), 360-407.
- Kay, Margaret J. (1996). "Reading: The First Chapter in Education." http://www.margaretkay.com/Matthew%20Effect.htm