Last Friday a friend of mine told me about the Marshmallow "Experiment". So after few search results online, i would like to share it with you.

 

It is a famous test of the concept of delayed gratification conducted by American social psychologist, Walter Mischel, at Stanford University.

   

In the 1960s a group of four-year-olds were tested by being given a marshmallow and promised another if they could wait 20 minutes before eating the first one.

the researchers would put one marshmallow on the table and leave. This would leave the kids with the marshmellow on the table and no one to influence his decision.

if they wait till the researchers come back, they will get another one!

 

Some children could wait and others could not. Some children were patient, some werent.

 

Flash forward 20 years or so...

 

The researchers then followed the progress of each child into adolescence, and demonstrated that those with the ability to wait were better adjusted and more dependable (determined via surveys of parents and teachers), and scored an average of 210 points higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

 

In other words, more successful!

 

Think about this next time you see an instant gain and the potential for more later on? which one would you go for?