A marshmallow can determine your kids future

A number of  years ago a psychologist named Walter Mischel was thinking about his daughter. She was five years old and  beginning to learn about putting off immediate gratification for a greater reward further down the road. He was curious if she was making progress.

Realizing that probably everyone in her school class was pondering  the same thing, he wondered when kids  first become aware of learning the essential tool of self control.

He conducted a very simple experiment. 

He put the child in a small room, with no distractions but a table with  a marshmallow on it. There was also an adult with the following instructions.

The child was told he/she would be left alone for a short while, and upon the return of the adult, if the child had not eaten the marshmellow they would be rewarded with two!

Watching the kids respond was an adventure in itself.  They would try to distract them selves by banging on the legs of the table or by looking away.  Some kids came so close- they would  dab some of the sugar off with their fingers and lick it.  They would bite tiny, microscopic bits and turn the marshmellow upside down to avoid detection.

As much as they wanted the  sugar treat, they also were aware of a future, better reward if they just put off the immediate urge.

Some succumbed, some didn't.  He wondered what might have influenced their decisions.

As he began to review his findings he was immediately made aware, by a number of people, that perhaps the study really had no value.

People pointed out things like: what if the child had recently eaten or just wasn't hungary? Or what if the child had an innate distrust of adults?   What if he didn't like marshmallows in the first  place? Not to mention the sample was from a very small school.

Mischel acknowledged the flaws and never resumed, refined or published his experiment.

As his daughter was about to enter college he wondered what became of the kids in the study fifteen  or so years later.

It was easy enough to find out, the kids were all  from the same area and now about the same age.

What he found was interesting.

The kids that waited for the two  marshmellow had sigher SAT scores, lower body mass indexes, and greater workplace success.

In other words, you could do this test yourself (as a matter of fact a number of school districts currently use it)  You can intervene if you suspect your child isn't leaning self control with something this simple and directly influence their later lives.