My mom took my little brother to participate in a child psych study like this when he was a toddler (mom had some ties to the university). It was a very similar experiment with skittles as the prize. My brother sat staring glumly at the candy the whole time. The test administrator was increasingly enthusastic with praise after each round right up until the end when she congratulated him and said that he could have the whole bag. He said "no thanks" and ran back to mom crying because he was told there would be candy but they only had skittles, which he very much did not like (and for that matter still doesn't). The administrator was apparently embarrassed and told my mom that she thought that all kids liked skittles....

There's lots of talk about the kids who didn't wait 5 minutes, but I also find it interesting to read about the kids who did delay gratification. It's not that they were superior specimens, or junior ascetics, or reborn Buddhist monks. They were as tempted as the rest.

They mostly avoided temptation by coming up with games to distract themselves. It's something creative and it can both be learned and improved like a skill. It reminds me of the people who compete in memory games. It's not a super normal talent, it's games people can practice.

It does raise a question why kids who could do this were more academically successful later, and if kids who are taught this will have similar success later. Important questions that should be considered carefully.

This study is actually kind of sad, because upon further reflection on the data, it was found that the kids with "poor impulse control" were actually less likely to trust authority figures because they had experienced so many letdowns or broken promises from adult role models in their lives. Kids with happy home lives who were used to getting treats were way more likely to wait for the second marshmallow, whereas kids who had been consistently lied to or had never been given spontaneous treats by their caretakers were more likely to just take what was right in front of them.

sometimes i think about that kid in the experiment who was sat down and told to wait some time before eating the sweetness put in front of him

that his patience would bring a reward

and i think about how they laughed when he didn’t succeed in waiting and instead crammed the entire gummy bear into his mouth the second they left

looking so guilty afterward

the way they gloated and collected data and prognosticated about his future job prospects and potential success-
certainly not as good as those who waited, they said

it was something about self-control

i know all too well that when he got home there were probably no sweets
or if there were, they were there for a moment only
before being snatched away by either cruel hands or circumstance,

no guarantee that promises meant anything, much less that they were kept.

if it had been me in that chair
i’d have eaten it too.

I had to zoom in

The kid is smart, he gets an healthy dose of marshmallow now instead of a sickening quantity later

Oh ye, that experiment was rather bad

Calvin?

Just to confuse him, wait five minutes then eat just one of them.