Matthew effect in science (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject Psychology - Industrial and organizational psychology, grade: 1.7, University of Kassel, course: Economics of Science & Technology, language: English, abstract: Merton (1968) was first to coin the term "Matthew effect", a phenomenon which describes the fact, that scientist of a higher status will receive more credit for similar work than scientists of comparatively lower status would receive. The research in this field has expanded to more areas than the scientific community, for example to sports careers or education and is often casually described with the phrase "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer". During this work, the focus will lay on the scientific community. The particular topic of interest is the interaction between status effects, prize winning and citations as a form of perceived quality. Starting with an introduction to the theoretical background of the Matthew effect in science, we will learn that there are two components to the Matthew effect, namely the "reward system" and the "communication system". In the following empirical part of the paper, we will first take an extensive look at a study which examines whether a status shock triggers a citation boost for the awarded scientist. The results will show a citation premium following the awarding of the scientist, but the effect is limited in time and strongest on recent productions. Afterwards, studies with similar topics, namely the Matthew effect in relation to citations or price winning, will be reviewed. Finally, a discussion on the research state regarding the Matthew effect is warranted. It will become clear that research in relation to this topic must overcome some hurdles. The measurement of status and quality, both variables who are anchored in the Matthew effect, is difficult. Furthermore, the question of cause and effect between status and delivered quality needs to be addressed. This work ends with a conclusive section and a possible outlook for future research.