Interlude: The Instant Marshmallow Story
[I spy eye candy! by *eclaire]
My mom told me a story when I was in my late teens that resonates with me today about a study she read about in Reader's Digest (or the like...she loved to quote from Readers Digest). I've paraphrased it for the purposes of my lesson.
A group of scientists studying young personality types created an experiment where they put 10 children in separate rooms and placed a marshmallow in front of them. They gave each child the same instructions:
"You are welcome to eat this marshmallow whenever you would like. However, if you wait here and don't eat the marshmallow, when I return, you will get 5 marshmallows."
Then the scientist left the room and watched the children through the one way mirrors. Most of the children, unsurprisingly, ate the marshmallow in front of them. They were hungry or didn't care about or understand the consequences. But 3 children waited patiently for
Most of the 'instant marshmallow' children complained that they would like more marshmallows, that one didn't satisfy them, but were reminded that the deal was that they would only get those extra marshmallows if they held off.
The moral of this story, of course, was that good things come to those who wait. That there is short term pain for long term gain.
::update: from the book description:
Joachim de Posada (author)...saw that the key difference between success and failure is not merely hard work or superior intelligence, but the ability to delay gratification. "Marshmallow resisters" achieve high levels of success while others eat all their marshmallows at once, so to speak-accumulating debt and dissatisfaction despite their occupations or incomes. ...moves made today can pay off big tomorrow-if they just don't eat the marshmallow...yet!Now...back to regular programming.
9 Comments:
Apparently there are a book and several other sites that ruminate on this subject as well.
I tell the marshmellow story all the time!! Glad I wasn't making it up.
I wonder how the results would differ in other societies.
I think a lot of Americans expect to get more than what they've earned. they know they haven't earned it but they still think they should get it. Our anemic savings rate certainly indicates that.
Reaping rewards through delayed gratification is not some teleological explanation or strategic essentialism to explain human behavior. Simply, the study shows a way to trump what structural forces would rather have you do: consume, consume, consume, go into debt, be a good debt consumer (be a good worker to pay off your debt). There's nothing all that mysterious or profound here. It simply a strategy (that I think ought to be obvious, but that's me).
Hey Anon,
I think that's what my point is...and it leads into a series of posts I'm going to write.
It is obvious, you are right...but you would be surprised - or maybe not - to know that almost everyone we encounter have that knee-jerk reaction to being patient.
Five's not enough. Fifty? I would think that's a different thing. How can you really tell the difference between 1 and 5?
Great blog Tara, your posts are always educational and entertaining to read at the same time. Keep it up :-)
This must be balanced with the possibility that a tornado wipes out the test center and the kid dies without having eaten any marshmallows at all... ; )
OK, morbid example... but there ARE people who take "delayed gratification" to such an extent that I find very sad... the most meaningful example for me is that my mother kept putting off that big European adventure trip (she spent half her life planning for) because she wanted to wait until "the kids are out of school", but was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer when I was 12. After we knew she didn't have that long, we tried to force her to go on that trip, but it was already too late.
Yes, that's an extreme example that one could take to justify all instant-gratification behavior, but somewhere, there's a good balance. We all know people who, for example, stay in jobs they hate... the other extreme example, "Just 5 more years to retirement." One of the best outcomes of the dot com meltdown is that once all of our stock options sunk below the waves, those of us not yet laid off from jobs we hated no longer felt that "golden handcuff" pressure to stay.
The problem is finding that balance and knowing what to delay (and for how long) and what to do now. Geez.. this comment sounds depressing, but it wasn't meant to be. Sometimes carpe diem is a good thing. The question is, how do you know if it's one of those times? I'm still struggling with that one.
@Kathy
Wow...yeah...I guess I wasn't thinking of it that way. I was thinking of it in the way that so many companies want the quick results of $$ or #s instead of having patience to build relationships.
I am all for Carpe Diem, though. There may be a way to differentiate this. Good thought.
T.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home