More about marshmallows and willpower
The mind masters are at it again. They are not going to be fooled by simple sweeping conclusions based on demonstration developmental studies. OK, maybe it is not fair to ding Mischel’s famous marshmallow experiment of 1972. Lots of good features in that study like 635 subjects and best of all following and contrasting the adult life outcomes of the kiddies who couldn’t wait to wolf down a couple of marshmallows instead of delaying gratification, waiting to get a who load of marshmallows later. The mind masters have lots to say about this study and its outcome (see https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/69262164/mind%20masters.docx).
Let us fast forward to a new study that the mind masters tag with one of their favorite one liner…”not so fast”. Little kids don’t simply delay gratification, in another version of the marshmallow experiment. No, there is more to it. Kids who can delay gratification must also trust the person who is running the study to be reliable agent for delivering the goods, the goodies.
In a just completed study Celeste Kidd and her colleagues have been able to show that …”Expectations about whether it’s best to grab goodies before they disappear or trust that bigger returns will come later are as important to delaying gratification as self-control….” In her experiment as summarized by Bruce Bower, Kidd tested 28 youngsters, ages 3 to 5, on the marshmallow task but before testing, the children completed an art project. “Half dealt with an unreliable experimenter who failed to deliver on promises to bring back fancy art supplies and cool stickers. The rest had a reliable experimenter, who provided art supplies and stickers as promised. Children who had been disappointed by an experimenter waited for an average of about three minutes before eating the marshmallow, while those who got what was promised lasted 12 minutes. After an unreliable encounter, only one of 14 kids waited the full 15 minutes for the second marshmallow, compared with nine of 14 kids assigned to a reliable experimenter.”
No surprise but then again when it comes to complex behavior, like delaying gratification, studies rarely come up with simple explanations that account for results.