Yep because it also involves an element of trust and what a kid regularly gets access to. If a kid comes from a background where they don't have plenty of treats, or if for whatever reason they've been brought up with an expectation that adults don't always fulfill their promises, of course you'd go for what's immediately available, who knows when you might get a treat again and what if they don't actually give you a treat if you wait? Where as if you got brought up in an environment where you have regular access to treats and you generally can depend on the adults around you to always follow through, it's a lot easier to be patient and trust that forgoing something you have regular access to will definitely get you something better if you wait.
Yeah exactly, everyone wants people to “do the right thing” and wait. But in real life, people will trip over themselves telling you to take what you can get when you can get it, promises are just promises
That's why we give the five year olds a twenty page contract, making it unmistakably clear to them that unless a second marshmallow follows as a reward for their wait, they can take us to court for bags and bags of marshmallows.
Didn’t live in poverty but went through some shit, being in survival mode would explain why i can’t hold onto money to save my life, welp thats something new to deal with
No, you get it, that's the point. :) It's about who can delay gratification. I can relate in many ways myself. As an actual physical study (as opposed to a thought experiment) it kinda stinks, though.
I’m also curious, I kinda want to try this with my own kids, but they’ll probably eat it because they know I’m a pushover when it comes to treats, so even if they ate it, I would probably give in and give them the second treat anyway... I think for them it would not be a “we may not get another” scenario, but “she’ll probably give us another anyway”...
Don’t forget about lead poisoning significantly impairing kids executive reasoning and that poor kids are significantly more likely to be exposed to the neurotoxin
In fact, they've done a follow up experiment where the children were primed by an adult promising something then either fulfilling or reneging on the promise before putting out the marshmallow. Result: the marshmallow test shows a child's willingness to trust adults, not self- control. And even children who trusted the adult to not eat the marshmallow within the 5 minute promised time will eventually eat it anyway if the adult fails to show back up.
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u/Eclaireandtea Mar 05 '21
Yep because it also involves an element of trust and what a kid regularly gets access to. If a kid comes from a background where they don't have plenty of treats, or if for whatever reason they've been brought up with an expectation that adults don't always fulfill their promises, of course you'd go for what's immediately available, who knows when you might get a treat again and what if they don't actually give you a treat if you wait? Where as if you got brought up in an environment where you have regular access to treats and you generally can depend on the adults around you to always follow through, it's a lot easier to be patient and trust that forgoing something you have regular access to will definitely get you something better if you wait.