Application of Matthew effect

There are several words in the Bible: "everyone who has something will be given more, so that he will have more; and those who have nothing will be taken away from him."

These words come from a story in one of the chapters of Matthew

The master will go abroad and call the three servants and give them money according to their abilities. The first got 5000, the second got 2000, and the third got 1000.

After the master left, the first servant bought and sold with five thousand taels of silver and made another five thousand; the second servant made two thousand; the third servant buried one thousand taels of silver in the ground.

After a long time, the master came back to settle accounts with his servant.

The first servant reported that he had made five thousand taels of silver. The master said, "well, I will send you to manage many things, so that you can enjoy the happiness of the master."

The second servant reported that he had made two thousand taels of silver. The master said, "OK, I'll send you to manage a lot of things so that you can enjoy the happiness of the master."

The third servant reported, "I have buried all the money you gave me in the ground, and there is not a little." The master scolded the servant and decided to take back his thousand taels of silver and give them to those who had ten thousand taels of silver.

Merton, a famous American scientist and philosopher, was the first to use this sentence to sum up a kind of social psychological effect: "more and more honors have been given to scientists who have made contributions to a considerable reputation, while those scientists who have not yet become famous refuse to admit their achievements." This is the origin of the term "Matthew effect".

In many aspects of our life, such as the inequality between the rich and the poor, the employment in management, youth education and daily social interaction, there is a shadow of "Matthew effect".

In social interaction, "Matthew effect" shows that people with more friends will get more friends through frequent contacts; people without friends will always be lonely.

If the Matthew effect happens to us, what should we do? When we are in the negative "Matthew effect", we should not follow the development of "Matthew effect" with self pity, but reverse this effect. We should not believe in evil, and take adversity as an opportunity to temper ourselves. No matter how difficult the environment and conditions are, we should work hard to change our environment, so as to enter the positive "Matthew effect". At the same time, we should make use of the positive "Matthew effect" to make ourselves closer to success. In interpersonal communication, the positive Matthew effect tells us that if you know how to make friends, you will have more and more friends. And this is one of the prerequisites for our success.