Finding out whether a work has been cited after its publication will help you assess the importance of that work and how it has shaped subsequent research and scholarship. This is called forward citation searching.
For example, this image shows the forward citations for Sherman, Haidt, and Coan's (2009) article "Viewing cute images increases behavioral carefulness."
Increasingly databases include information about who cited a particular reference. Look for "Cited by" or "Times Cited" features.