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The marshmallow test is weird anyway. The other day we happened to have a bag of marshmallows so I asked my daughter if she’d like one marshmallow now or two af
by wincy 7y ago
The marshmallow test is weird anyway. The other day we happened to have a bag of marshmallows so I asked my daughter if she’d like one marshmallow now or two after doing a chore. Surprise surprise, she gleefully did the chore and got two marshmallows. What does that mean? That she’s a hard worker? That she understands the value of waiting to have a bigger reward in the future? I don’t know.
- gerbilly 7y agoTest it on 30-40 kids instead and then get back to us. You sample size is too small :-)
- kthejoker2 7y agoThat's not actually the marshmallow test. The marshmallow test is to see if she can wait 15 minutes alone in a room with a marshmallow without eating it in return for 2 marshmallows. Nothing to do with hard work (in fact, it's about having no distractions at all), its purely about self discipline (setting aside whether it's valid psychology or not..)
- Jill_the_Pill 7y agoBut then they discovered it is in fact not purely about self-discipline, but rather the degree of trust the child has in the marshmallow promiser. In an uncertain life, it makes sense to take whatever marshmallow is actually here now.
- wincy 7y agoRight. I understand. I was making an admittedly hasty and not very clear commentary about how weirdly artificial the marshmallow test is. If I want to put off gratification in the real world, I busy myself with working on something else. I’d personally take the one marshmallow, then go do something else, and hope my daughter would too. My time is too valuable to be sitting around waiting for marshmallows.