first contact with the marschmallow test
the first time i heard of mischel’s research was quite a few years back when i watched an hilarious youtube video of kids trying to resist marshmallows and other sweets.
some succeeded. other didn’t. but all these kids with their gestures and wait tactics were adorable. it was funny and i laughed and then i forgot about it. it was just one of these videos that went viral before viral even was a word that was used in this context.
an experiment series
cue to several years later when i learned that these videos were actually part of a long-term psychology experiment series studying self-control and delayed gratification.
or in terms of mischel’s experiment: eat 1 marshmallow now or 2 later.
it’s the findings of this series of experiments spanning back decades that he summarized in ‘the marshmallow test’.
real-life implications
this might sound academic and dry, but really isn’t. mischel’s humility and knowledge produced a read that’s as compelling and inspiring as it is informative and accessible.
on the one hand, this book is the testament to an entire career. what started out as research on self-control in children gained even more significance once the ‘marshmallow kids’ were adults and correlations between their performance on the test and their success in life emerged.
on the other hand, this book is a testament to change and brain plasticity. it shows that no matter what we are born with or raised as, anyone can use his research to get to the level of self-control they want.
to me, that’s neither academic, nor dry at all!
