Can We Wait for the Second Marshmallow?

Read a great article this morning forwarded to me from my good friend Alec: “Instant Gratification Nation: Can We Still Sacrifice for the Future?” by Charles Wheelan, Ph. D. It’s primarily a business/finance article, but I think there are truths that are expressed in it that definitely affect other areas of our life as well.

The article pulls from a study that Stanford did nearly 50 years ago with some preschoolers. The children were tested in their ability to delay instant gratification for a greater reward later. The results of that study have played out in different commentary over the years since, drawing from what they found.

I’d encourage you to read the article for the full details, but here’s a brief synopsis (my thoughts follow):

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, researchers at Stanford University conducted a now-famous experiment using young children enrolled at Stanford’s preschool facility. Experimenters sat the students at a table set with assorted objects that children of that age would find desirable (marshmallows, colored plastic poker chips, stick pretzels, and the like). The students were asked which of the objects they preferred.

Once that was determined, each student was offered an explicit choice that tested his or her ability to defer gratification: Get a reward now or a bigger reward later. The experimenter left the room, leaving a bell on the table in front of the student. If the student rang the bell before the experimenter returned, he or she would get a reward, albeit a less preferred one (a single marshmallow instead of two). However, if the student resisted ringing the bell until the experimenter returned (typically after 15 or 20 minutes), he or she would get something even better—two marshmallows.

The study found that the student’s ability to defer gratification at that young age directly affected their ability to achieve success in other outcomes as they great older. Those that were willing to ‘wait for the second marshmallow’ were able to cope with stress and frustration 10 years later as they hit adolescence.

Wheelan’s question is…

Is America as a nation losing its ability to wait for the second marshmallow? By that, I mean can we still muster the political will and personal sacrifice to make investments today that will make us richer and stronger 10, 20, or 50 years from now?

I’d take it a step further and not limit the question to our finances/the economy. Are we able to have the self-control and will to be able to delay gratification for the greater thing or the greater good in other areas of our life as well?

In some ways I think I’m contributing to the problem. I look to my kids, and while I’m not in the habit of giving them everything they want (not even close), I do find myself contributing to their inability to wait. I delay telling them about things until I absolutely have to in order to avoid the incessant questions (think “Are we there yet?” multiplied tenfold). Yet, am I not affording them the opportunity to learn patience by not telling them about things earlier?

I don’t know. I know have had to learn patience more and more as I have grown older. It would do me well to start that learning in my kids earlier than I began.

Posted 07.24.2008

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