A few weeks ago, a book written by renowned psychologist Walter Mischel was published reflecting on what Angela Duckworth (famous for her “grit” research) called the single most important experiment in social science history.
The experiment is commonly called “the marshmallow test,” and it was originally conducted at Stanford University in 1970. If you’re completely unfamiliar with this experiment, you may want to read a quick summary before reading the rest of this article (or for more fun, watch Stephen Colbert’s interview).
For those of you who are familiar (but may not remember all the details), the test involved asking young children to delay gratification of a treat for 15 minutes in order to double the size of the reward. Those children who were able to show self- control in the experiment tended to have better life outcomes (later in life), as measured by SAT scores, educational attainment, career growth, marital stability, and several other measures of success and flourishing.
While there were many implications that later followed from his research (Dr. Mischel has more than 200 publications to his credit), there were two conclusions the layperson commonly drew from this research:
1. Self-control / delayed gratification is an important component of success in all parts of life.
2. The self-control “die is cast” early in childhood and those without a natural propensity towards self-control are at a life-long disadvantage.
Dr. Mischel, as you might imagine, takes issue with the second conclusion and spends part of the book debunking this idea. As one commentator reported,
Genetics clearly plays a role in the level of self-control one has, but genetics is not destiny. Can a person actually increase his self-control?
Mischel’s response is yes, if you approach it with a mindset that believes that increasing self-control is possible as opposed to a helpless mindset that believes willpower is a limited resource or state of being over which you have no control.
For those of us who would have grabbed the marshmallow and ran, this premise is reassuring. But, it doesn’t excuse us from realities of the first principle—the character trait of delaying gratification is an important predictor of success.
Why does this seemingly simple act of delaying gratification have all of these massive consequences?
In a recent interview, Dr. Mischel answered this important question.
If I want to reach the goal I have in mind — I want the two marshmallows — I have to inhibit interfering responses.
I can’t start looking at the marshmallows and thinking how yummy and chewy the marshmallow is or how sweet it will taste. I can’t start touching it too much because I’ll want to bring it right up to my mouth.
[People who are successful] focus attention on monitoring progress towards the goal, and do whatever necessary to make it possible. Planning and other future-oriented activities and ways of controlling one’s own emotions require [delaying gratification]. These fundamental skills allow you to have control over stimuli rather than being controlled by them.
There’s the answer: Willingness to delay gratification equips us to focus on a goal and not be tossed around by all the stimuli bombarding our lives.
Of course, those who consistently accomplish long-term, well-thought-out goals are going to be more successful.
In the next WorkPuzzle, I’ll share some of Dr. Mischel’s thoughts on how to increase your own level of self-control. The most important claim of his manifesto (he wrote this at age 84) is that self-control can be learned, mastered, and taught to others.
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