An important principle for building and leveraging your resources to advance personally and professionally. The law of cumulative advantages describes a pattern where those who begin with or gain an advantage, tend to accumulate more and more advantages over time, and those who begin with a disadvantage, or are put at a disadvantage, tend to become increasingly disadvantaged.
What Is the Law of Cumulative Advantages?
The law of cumulative advantages, also known as the Matthew effect, is a principle that states that once an individual gains a small advantage over others, or an advantage in a specific area (which can be viewed in comparison to others) that advantage makes it easier to gain additional advantages, which will compound over time into a significant advantage. An easy way to explain this is that once a student achieves a bachelor’s degree, they are able to pursue (and more easily obtain) a master’s degree. A student with a master’s degree will be able to then pursue (and, once again, more easily obtain) a doctoral degree. By achieving this high level of education, it will also be easier (and in some cases, the only way possible) to obtain certain professional designations, licenses, and credentials.
A Few Examples
To shed more light on the law of cumulative advantages, here are a few more examples of the law of cumulative advantages at work:
In science, eminent scientists will often get more credit than a comparatively unknown researcher, even if their work is similar; it also means that credit will usually be given to researchers who are already famous.
In education, students who have early access to high-quality learning opportunities will tend to perform better than those who do not, and this gap will widen over time as the former group accumulates more skills and knowledge than the latter.
In economics, individuals who have more wealth or income will tend to have more opportunities to invest and earn more returns, while those who have less will face more constraints and risks.
People can benefit from the law of cumulative advantages by leveraging their existing resources and networks to gain more opportunities and rewards. For example, a scientist can benefit from collaborating with other well-known scientists, publishing in prestigious journals, and applying for grants from reputable institutions. A student can benefit from attending a good school, participating in extracurricular activities, and seeking mentorship from teachers or peers. An individual can benefit from saving and investing wisely, diversifying their income sources, and taking advantage of tax incentives or subsidies.
Cumulative Advantages, Innovation, and Cross-Domain Competencies
This law applies to innovation, learning, and education in various ways. Innovation is the process of creating new ideas, products, or services that solve problems or meet needs. Innovation often depends on the availability of resources, such as funding, talent, knowledge, networks, and infrastructure. Those who have access to these resources are more likely to innovate and benefit from their innovations, while those who lack them are less likely to do so and may fall behind. Cross-domain competencies are related to cumulative advantages. As your knowledge and skill base increase, and you become more adept at applying and transferring existing knowledge and skills to new areas, it becomes easier to build cross-domain competencies as well as perform in, and master, new domains.
The Bottom Line
By expanding your knowledge, skills, resources, networks, and other areas, you also expand your opportunities and ability to accomplish increasingly difficult and larger-scale goals. At the same time, those with higher level knowledge and skills are generally more easily able to advance them even further, just as those with excess financial resources are better positioned to take advantage of investments and other income-generating opportunities and expand their wealth. Your awareness of existing opportunities will expand, your ability to take advantage of those opportunities will expand, and your overall level of success in pursuing them will increase as you are able to leverage a growing base of knowledge, skills, resources, and networks. The law of cumulative advantages should be kept in mind, especially as one sets long-term goals and works to pursue those goals.
- The LISBI Team
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