The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control | Walter Mischel

Can you pass the marshmallow test? You’re a little kid. A marshmallow is placed on the table in front of you. You’re told you can eat it any time, but if you wait a little while, you’ll be given two marshmallows to eat.

The kids who have the self-control to pass this most famous of psychological tests turn out to have more rewarding and productive lives. Walter Mischel, who first ran the test in the 1960s, spent the rest of his career exploring how self-control works, summarized in his 2014 book "The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control". “The ability to delay gratification and resist temptation has been a fundamental challenge since the dawn of civilization,” he writes. “It is the ‘master aptitude’ underlying emotional intelligence, essential for constructing a fulfilling life.”

This talk spells out the remarkable things have has been learned about willpower and self-control in the individual. It also considers wider implications. Does it make a difference when an organization or society has more people able to fully engage self-control? Does it make a difference when that kind of behavior is publicly expected and trained for explicitly? Is there a social or political or cultural level of surmounting marshmallow-test temptations? That might be the essence of long-term behavior.

"The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control" was given on May 02, 02016 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions.

[einsteinslambda]

His smoking story was so relatable. It wasn't the pictures that got me, but when I couldn't breathe one morning. I have also smoked in the shower. Wet, stale, or broken it didn't matter. 5+ years free of that horrible stuff. So many great insights that I couldn't help putting pen to paper. Thank you!

[jwh]

What an honour watching the legend himself talking about his own experiment which was done almost 50 years ago.

[JuliaHelen]

How does AD(H)D from the VTA synaptic pathway view relate to the impuls control in the marshmellow experimentation-observations?

En how so isn't prewired? What if we see "prewiring" as dirty genes that under stressers activate? 🤔

[dianneoehman]

This is typical wisdom from the “world” there is something greater! God’s Wisdom!
Scripture states: Galatians 5:22-25 “But the fruit (notice fruit is singular all these 9 facets are included in 1 fruit!) of The Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and SELF CONTROL. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with it’s passions and desires. If we live in The Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
This gift is sealed in a Believer the moment they, from their heart, turn to Jesus asking for His forgiveness! So then we work out into our daily lives that which was supernaturally placed inside every Believer at the moment of Justification, Redemption and Reconciliation that comes from The LORD alone!