Imagine that you’re 4 years old and that it’s 1968.
You’re brought into a small room, a “game room,” with a table, chair and three sugary snacks. You’re asked to pick one treat. You choose the marshmallow. Then you’re told that you can either have the marshmallow right away by ringing a bell, or wait a few minutes and get two marshmallows. Then you’re left alone for 15 minutes.
This seemingly simple experiment conducted by Austrian-born clinical psychologist Walter Mischel at Stanford University became known as “The Marshmallow Study.” But don’t let the silly name fool you. This study tested over 600 kids at the Bing Nursery School and has become one of the longest-running studies in psychology.
What Mischel actually wanted to explore had zero to do with kids’ desire for sweets, of course. The lead investigator wanted to test the concept of delayed gratification.
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Interesting article.
I have been living in Trinidad since 1965.
The fact is that East Indians are much more ‘wealthy’ than Africans. When the East Indians came here to replace African labour after emancipation, they came with almost nothing from India.
Both groups began with nothing.
If saving money and later re-investing it isn’t delayed gratification, I don’t know what is.
Could you refer me to the complete study that Mischel did when in Trinidad? I’d appreciate that.
Also, no mention was made of the sample size. I suspect this author is being “politically correct”.