Multi - Perspective Analysis Of Merton 's Matthew Effect

The Matthew effect is a common phenomenon in human society and the research on the Matthew effect starts from the famous American sociologist Robert King Merton.Many people,if not most,are very familiar with the common saying “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” for having heard it many times.This saying colloquially expresses the meaning of the Matthew effect.Despite the fact that would be much more complicated, it still reveals the deep-seated veil of social functioning.Merton has put forward his thinking on Matthew effect in many aspects,he believes the differences between“the gold of scientific fame and the brass of popular celebrity”,he also thinks that “A macrosocial version of the Matthew principle is apparently involved in those processes of social selection that currently lead to the concentration of scientific resources and talent”,and he discusses the “countervailing processes” that makes Matthew effect continue without assignable limit. These have provided several new perspectives for the study of the Matthew effect.In view of this,this paper’s main idea is to give a text interpretation of Merton’s research of the Matthew effect and hope to make a step forward to widen the conception’s boundaries in the field of sociology of science according to Merton’s posing of the questions.The first part of the paper is the reviewing on the Matthew effect of Merton’s literature and suggests that Merton’s research on Matthew effect is based on the individual scientist’s reputation level.The second part of the paper,along with the issues proposed by Merton, uses comparative methods to reveal the Matthew effect that influences the development of science and different modules of science development under the different backgrounds of Chinese and Western civilization from historical perspective.The third part of the paper,responding to Merton’s “countervailing processes”, combines the Matthew effect and regenerative feedback and by sketching the scientific community’s operation in modern society,at the same time,tries to explore the Matthew effect from the inner and outer manifestations of scientific community as well as its factual meaning.