3. Basically it goes like this….
1. Give a kid a marshmallow.
2. Tell them they can have TWO if
they WAIT 15 min to eat it.
3. Leave the room.
4. Being patient enough
to double the payout
supposedly indicates
willpower that predicts
success
5. Austrian psychologist
Walter Mischel & his
team developed this test
at Stanford in the 1960s.
They tracked kids for ~30
years & published results
in 1990.
6. As is often the case
with science that
confirms
preconceived notions,
Mischel’s experiment
& results became a
huge hit...
15. A new study published this year by Tyler
Watts, Greg Duncan & Hoanan Quan
restaged the experiment with 900 kids.
It found the conclusion of causation for
wait times & success to be MISGUIDED
16. The new study suggests waiting for a 2nd
marshmallow is largely shaped by the child’s
social & economic background,
which obviously also impacts their
long-term success.
18. Harvard economist Sendhil
Mullainathan & Princeton
behavioral scientist Eldar Shafir
dedicated their 2013 book
“Scarcity: Why Having Too Little
Means So Much” to the topic.
It explains how poverty leads
people to opt for short-term
rather than long-term rewards
19. Learn more?
Follow this link to find a
comprehensive list of Cognitive
Biases.
Can you find at least 3 that
affected Dr. Poopypants’
judgement?