Dynamik und Verbreitung des Matthäus-Effekts

This study traces the reception of Robert Merton’s concept and label, the “Matthew Effect”, from its origin four decades ago to the present day. It has been cited more often as time has passed and its influence has become increasingly wide-spread. The paper reviews the meaning Merton intended the concept to have and why it is of special significance for this author. The diffusion of the Matthew effect is shown through many fields of inquiry (including but not limited to psychology, public health, criminology, and education) and ultimately the popular discourse. Drawing on an analysis of the contents of all publications with the term in their titles, the paper shows that as the use of the Matthew effect spread, so too has the diversity in its applications and the changes in its meaning. Further, the term has been uncoupled from the identity of its originator, that is, while Merton’s name and the proper references continue to be cited, the term itself has also acquired an independent existence. The uncoupling of authors from their term-and-concepts is shown to occur in the case of other sociologists, suggesting that the processes of “uncoupling” and what Merton called “obliteration by incorporation”, are as he observed, a general phenomenon in the scientific literature. So too does the meaning of terms become blurred as they spread and sometimes even acquire connotations altogether different from their origins.