Walter Mischel’s marshmallow test is one of the best-known studies in
the history of psychology. In the 1960s, Mischel, then a professor at
Stanford, took nursery-school students, put them in a room one-by-one,
and gave them a treat (they could choose a cookie, a pretzel stick, or a
marshmallow) and the following deal: They could eat the treat right
away, or wait 15 minutes until the experimenter returned. If they
waited, they would get an extra treat. Tracking the kids over time,
Mischel found that the ability to hold out in this seemingly trivial
exercise had real and profound consequences. As they matured and became
adults, the kids who had shown the ability to wait got better grades,
were healthier, enjoyed greater professional success, and proved better
at staying in relationships—even decades after they took the test. They
were, in short, better at life.
Read more about the marshmallow test here!
I hope that we get to hear from Dr Gerald "Teddy" Bear on this. Fat kids may or may not have waited. What do you think? Should we do this test on fat kids vs skinny kids? What say you Dr Bear?
Would skinny kids eat the marshmallow right away because the really don't want a second one?
Would fat kids gobble down the marshmallow and not wait because they are too hungry to wait?
Would the skinny kids keep the second marshmallow and feed the marshmallow to curry favor with a fat kid?
What do you think would happen?
