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The old saying does often seem to hold true: the rich get richer while the poor get poorer, creating a widening gap between those who have more and those who have less. The sociologist Robert K. Merton called this phenomenon the Matthew effect, named after a passage in the gospel of Matthew. Yet the more closely we examine the sociological effects of this principle, the more complicated the idea becomes. Initial advantage doesn't always lead to further advantage, and disadvantage doesn't necessarily translate into failure. Does this theory need to be revisited?Merton's arguments have significa

Hofstadter's landmark analysis of anti‐intellectualism in American life is interpreted within the framework of the sociology of knowledge. His analysis suggests three analytically distinct types of anti‐intellectualism: religious anti‐rationalism, populist anti‐elitism, and unreflective instrumentalism. Each type arises from within its own distinctive institutional matrix. Although Hofstadter fails to anticipate the growing cultural impact of mass media institutions, he demonstrates convincingly that anti‐intellectualism is not a unitary phenomenon.

Max Weber suggested that appeals to philosophy of science reflect a lack of sense of direction among scientists; this suggests the hypothesis that social scientists, who have been less successful than natural scientists in accounting for their data, should appeal to works in philosophy of science more often than natural scientists. This is tested through data on citations to 4 prominent philosophers of science in Science Citation Index & Social Science Citation Index in 1969 & 1978. Social scientists are more than 20 times as likely as natural scientists to cite these authors. These findings are consistent with Weber's suggestion. 1 Table. Modified HA.