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Showing Original Post only (View all)Why Rich Kids Are So Good at the Marshmallow Test [View all]
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/marshmallow-test/561779/?utm_source=atlfbThe marshmallow test is one of the most famous pieces of social-science research: Put a marshmallow in front of a child, tell her that she can have a second one if she can go 15 minutes without eating the first one, and then leave the room. Whether shes patient enough to double her payout is supposedly indicative of a willpower that will pay dividends down the line, at school and eventually at work. Passing the test is, to many, a promising signal of future success.
But a new study, published last week, has cast the whole concept into doubt. The researchersNYUs Tyler Watts and UC Irvines Greg Duncan and Hoanan Quanrestaged the classic marshmallow test, which was developed by the Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel in the 1960s. Mischel and his colleagues administered the test and then tracked how children went on to fare later in life. They described the results in a 1990 study, which suggested that delayed gratification had huge benefits, including on such measures as standardized test scores.
Watts and his colleagues were skeptical of that finding. The original results were based on studies that included fewer than 90 childrenall enrolled in a preschool on Stanfords campus. In restaging the experiment, Watts and his colleagues thus adjusted the experimental design in important ways: The researchers used a sample that was much largermore than 900 childrenand also more representative of the general population in terms of race, ethnicity, and parents education. The researchers also, when analyzing their tests results, controlled for certain factorssuch as the income of a childs householdthat might explain childrens ability to delay gratification and their long-term success.
Ultimately, the new study finds limited support for the idea that being able to delay gratification leads to better outcomes. Instead, it suggests that the capacity to hold out for a second marshmallow is shaped in large part by a childs social and economic backgroundand, in turn, that that background, not the ability to delay gratification, is whats behind kids long-term success.
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"Experience tends to tell them that adults have the resources and financial stability to keep ...
uponit7771
Jun 2018
#1
so true. tho fire roasted well done is bearable. bissinger makes almost good eggs.
pansypoo53219
Jun 2018
#11
A bet most kids who went on to business "success," ate it knowing they could steal some more.
Hoyt
Jun 2018
#3
Do we know what else the kids were given to do in those 15 minutes?
muriel_volestrangler
Jun 2018
#10