Posted: 3/28/2020
Recently, I watched episode 2 of Niall Ferguson's Networld documentary. He tried to explain certain network effects with the Matthew effect!
Apparently, sociologists like Robert K. Merton transferred this biblical narrative to describe certain effects in society. Merton is famous for such concepts as self fulfilling prophecy, unintended consequences, and role model. However, with the Matthew effect, he misappropriated and erred!
"The Matthew effect of accumulated advantage, Matthew principle, or Matthew effect for short, is sometimes summarized by the adage "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer""
"The Matthew effect of accumulated advantage, Matthew principle, or Matthew effect for short, is sometimes summarized by the adage "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer""
Some observations regarding the so called Matthew effect:
- The references in the Bible refer to spiritual gains not material gains. It is also quite obvious that the usual Bible references are taken out of context (see e.g. S1)
- The sociological view of this effect is extremely static and relies on primitive/naive extrapolation, while in reality society (in particular an open and free society) is much more dynamic etc.
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