Older, but Wiser? “The Matthew Effect” at 50: Introduction to the Dialog

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah M. G. Otner
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Matthew Effect ◽  
High Status ◽  
Scientific Careers ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Matthew Effect

Merton’s famous essay on recognition and rewards in scientific careers, “The Matthew Effect in Science”, has reached middle age. This Dialog reflects on established research that separates the origins and the consequences of status, and recent contributions regarding the constraints of status advantages. In doing so, this collection responds to a growing scholarly debate about the returns to high status. The authors engage with Merton’s cumulative status advantage, and go further to identify downsides of increased recognition both for individuals and for the status system itself. The six articles in this Dialog evaluate the progress made towards Merton’s proposed research agenda and highlight opportunities for its extension.

Systems of Evaluation and the Matthew Effect

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 362-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Sauder
Keyword(s):  
Information Flow ◽  
Matthew Effect ◽  
High Status ◽  
The Matthew Effect ◽  
Definition Of

Existing research on the Matthew Effect establishes that this dynamic can alter information flow and the distribution of rewards in ways that lead to cumulating advantages for high status actors. We know little, however, about how systems of evaluation, and especially variations in systems of evaluations, influence the expression and strength of these outcomes. Drawing on analyses of the effects of rankings on organizations, I consider how different evaluation contexts can change both audience perceptions about which organizations are award worthy and the definition of merit on which reward distributions are based.

The Matthew Effect and the Lucan Lawyer: The Ecological Consequences of Status Shocks

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-373
Author(s):  
Brian P. Reschke ◽  
Toby E. Stuart
Keyword(s):  
Matthew Effect ◽  
Future Research ◽  
High Status ◽  
Ecological Consequences ◽  
The Matthew Effect

Who are the neighbors of those who attain high status, and what is their fate in the wake of another actor’s status elevation? In this essay, we consider the consequences of an individual’s change in status for proximate individuals and domains. Particularly, we identify two, potentially simultaneous shifts in resources: a concentration of local recognition around high-status individuals and their immediate neighbors, and an overall elevation of recognition to the domain. We identify conditions in which within-domain or between-domain reallocation will occur, and we outline opportunities for future research.

scholarly journals Status and Economic Rent: Experimental Evidence on the Matthew Effect

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Clingingsmith ◽  
Roman M Sheremeta
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Performance Status ◽  
Matthew Effect ◽  
Economic Rent ◽  
Past Performance ◽  
Future Performance ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Status Effect ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Matthew Effect

Some researchers argue that social status extracts economic rents. Making a causal inference about this claim is difficult with naturally occurring data. For this reason, we conduct an experiment in which participants are divided into investors and workers. Workers are assigned status and then perform a real-effort task. Investors make investments after observing workers’ status and past task performance. We find that workers of higher status receive higher investments when status is derived from performance but not when it is randomly assigned. Surprisingly, the status effect persists even when, conditioning on past performance, status is not predictive of future performance.

scholarly journals Research Creativity and Productivity in Political Science: A Research Agenda for Understanding Alternative Career Paths and Attitudes Toward Professional Work in the Profession

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-83
Author(s):  
Kim Quaile Hill
Keyword(s):  
Research Productivity ◽  
Career Paths ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Scientific Career ◽  
Scientific Careers ◽  
Publication Success ◽  
General Scientific ◽  
Over Time

ABSTRACTA growing body of research investigates the factors that enhance the research productivity and creativity of political scientists. This work provides a foundation for future research, but it has not addressed some of the most promising causal hypotheses in the general scientific literature on this topic. This article explicates the latter hypotheses, a typology of scientific career paths that distinguishes how scientific careers vary over time with respect to creative ambitions and achievements, and a research agenda based on the preceding components for investigation of the publication success of political scientists.

Fellowship Behavior in Division 17 and the MOMM Cartel

1991 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Horan ◽  
Chris D. Erickson
Keyword(s):  
Sociology Of Science ◽  
Matthew Effect ◽  
Academic Programs ◽  
The Other ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Scholarly Productivity ◽  
Governing Body ◽  
The Matthew Effect ◽  
Counseling Psychologists

Graduates and employees of four institutions-the MOMM Cartel-dominate every science and practice organ of Division 17's governing body. Counseling psychologists from the other 60 academic programs (the OUTSIDERs) face numerous barriers to professional ascendancy. Six of 13 fellow nominees during the 1988-1989 year were MOMM members; none were rejected. Three OUTSIDERs were elected; four were rejected. Mean scholarly productivity for each group was 13, 21.3, and 19.7 Psyc LIT citations, respectively. The accepted OUTSIDERs were significantly more productive than the MOMMs; two of the four rejected OUTSIDERs ranked numbers one and two in scholarly productivity among all nominees. No relationship appeared between scholarship and fellow decisions; MOMM membership strongly predicted election to fellow status. Personal familiarity with the evaluators, rather than professional service, apparently accounts for these filings -a variant of the "Matthew Effect" discussed in the sociology-of-science literature Recommendations for reform are offered

The Contradictions and Intersections of Class and Gender in a Global City: Placing Working Women's Lives on the Research Agenda

10.1068/a3781 ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda McDowell ◽  
Diane Perrons ◽  
Colette Fagan ◽  
Kath Ray ◽  
Kevin Ward
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Global City ◽  
High Status ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Gender Divisions ◽  
And Gender ◽  
New Research

In this paper we examine the relationships between class and gender in the context of current debates about economic change in Greater London. It is a common contention of the global city thesis that new patterns of inequality and class polarisation are apparent as the expansion of high-status employment brings in its wake rising employment in low-status, poorly paid ‘servicing’ occupations. Whereas urban theorists tend to ignore gender divisions, feminist scholars have argued that new class and income inequalities are opening up between women as growing numbers of highly credentialised women enter full-time, permanent employment and others are restricted to casualised, low-paid work. However, it is also argued that working women's interests coincide because of their continued responsibility for domestic obligations and still-evident gender discrimination in the labour market. In this paper we counterpose these debates, assessing the consequences for income inequality, for patterns of childcare and for work–life balance policies of rising rates of labour-market participation among women in Greater London. We conclude by outlining a new research agenda.

scholarly journals Social Structures in Transition: Applications of Two Theories to Chiefdoms

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 237802311877175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Emanuelson ◽  
David Willer
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Theory ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
High Status ◽  
Structural Form ◽  
Downward Mobility ◽  
Status Characteristics Theory ◽  
The Third ◽  
Status Characteristics ◽  
The Status ◽  
Lineage Structure

Status characteristics theory and elementary theory are applied to explain developments through three structural forms that chiefdoms are known to take. Theoretic models find that downward mobility inherent in the first form, the status-lineage structure, destabilizes its system of privilege. As a consequence, high-status actors are motivated to find mechanisms to preserve and enhance privilege. By engaging in hostile relations with other chiefdoms, high-status actors offer protection to low-status others from real or imagined threats. Through that protection, they gain tribute and support. The result is structural change from influence based on status to power exercised through indirect coercion, the second structural form. In settled societies, accumulation through war and selective redistribution contribute to separation of warrior and commoner rankings. That separation leads to the third structural form, direct coercive chiefdom.

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