How A Girl Spoiled The Marshmallow Experiment

I have recently watched a video of a lecture The mystery of the human being, from the ancient times until today. At minute 56 of the video (in German) Prof. Dr. Daum talks about an incident during a marshmallow experiment.

Detailed procedure

During the marshmallow experiment the experimenter presents a marshmallow to a child. The experimenter tells the child that he/she’ll get a second one, if he/she manages not to eat the first one immediately, but is able to wait for a certain amount of time (usually around 15 minutes). The experiment is about the abillity to wait in expectation of a greater reward and to stand the feeling delayed of gratification.

It was found out that children, who were able to wait, had a greater probabillity of good life outcomes. They had got better jobs. They had better relationhips. And they were less often in conflict with the law.

One coud brag about the simplicistic and consumeristic setting. But scientific experiments need to be repeatable. Therefore a simple setting comes in handy. One could also ask whether self control that is obviously demanded by society is a value. Should free humans not sometimes beter act on impulse? Anyway the correlation between self control and better life outcomes is striking.

Surprising Outcome

At the end Prof. Dr. Daum tells a story about a girl. She ate the marshmallow immediately and therfore did not recieve a second one. Being confronted with the consequences she commented: She was imagining one of her friends to get the other one.

The girl showed a character that surely also correlates with goot life outcomes. By introducing her friends in the story the proved her social skills. By adding an alternative outcome to the experiment she showed the abillity of out of the box thinking. And she turned the tables in a very charming way. Who would deny her firends the second marshmallow?

How do we manage to keep such a spirit awake in children, may be support them to further develop it?

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