And I think both of those are really deep misunderstandings that have very serious negative consequences for how we think about self-control.įrom my point of view, the marshmallow studies over all these years have shown of course genes are important, of course the DNA is important, but what gets activated and what doesn’t get activated in this library-like genome that we’ve got depends enormously on the environment. WM: The unfortunate interpretation that’s been made of the research, which I must say the media have helped to create, is that your future and your destiny are in a marshmallow, which in turn translates into the widespread belief, I think, in the genes. WM: She is representative of so many parents. I read the interview that the woman at The Atlantic did with you, and I was so struck by the fact that what she was mainly concerned about was that her child had, and I use the term in quotes, “failed the marshmallow test.” Now comes an essential book on the subject of gratification delay by the father of the Marshmallow Test, Columbia University psychologist Walter Mischel: “The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self Control.” Our interview with him, posted as part 1 today and part 2 tomorrow, is - how to put this emphatically enough? - well worth delaying other gratifications to read. These are questions we’ve explored on Making Sen$e with, among others, Dan Ariely of Duke, Jerome Kagan of Harvard, Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford University’s Virtual Reality Lab, and Grover of Sesame St., to whom we administered the fabled “Marshmallow Test”: could he hold off eating just one marshmallow long enough to earn a second as well?

What do we really want? How might we behave in what’s truly our own best interest? Editor’s Note from Paul Solman: One of the most exciting developments in economics in recent years has been its conjunction with psychology.

The Marshmallow Test by Walter Mischel