We should give marshmallows to every kindergartner. We should say, ‘You see this marshmallow? You don’t have to eat it. You can wait. Here’s how.’
When Walter Mischel studied the mechanics of marshmallow restraint in the 1960′s, he certainly didn’t expect that we’d still be studying it 40 years later. You may have heard that children who were able to resist eating a marshmallow for 15 minutes later turned out to be more successful by a variety of measures, including SAT scores. You may not have heard the details of what Mischel discovered.
The marshmallow-resistors in Mischel’s study all resisted in the same way: They distracted themselves. Even more interesting, when non-resisting children were given tips on how to distract themselves, they were also able to resist eating the first marshmallow.
It appears from Mischel’s study that self-control is a crucial predictor of success, and, importantly, that it can be improved through teaching.
Today, scientists are using brain scans and further studies to find out more about how self-control works, why it’s so important, and how it can be taught. You can read more about this research (but not learn how to increase your own self-control) in the New Yorker article, Don’t: The Secret of Self Control (May 18, 2009).
