The marshmallow test was ran in the 1970's by a professor Walter Mischel at Stanford University with a group of 4 year old children. Each child was brought into a room and given one marshmallow and were told that if they waited for 15 minutes without eating the marshmallow, he/she will be given another marshmallow. Some children ate the marshmallow, the others waited in agony staring at the sweet, fingering it, and licking it for the full 15 minutes to be rewarded with another marshmallow.
Interestingly later in life, the children who waited showed they were more more successful in life, were more popular at school and scored higher in school tests compared to those who had not waited.
The point of the test was to show that self discipline was a major key to success. Instant gratification may be sweet in the fleeting moment but making the conscious choice to wait and focus on a better outcome in future is a mark of emotional intelligence.
I thought this test was quite interesting. Although conditions do matter, for instance if the kids had learnt from an early age they could not trust adults therefore a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, or if the child simply does not like marshmallows! I probably would have done deceptively well at the test, because I didn't know what a marshmallow was till the age of 13 and I don't like sweets so I would have no objections of waiting!
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