Mar 10, 2009

This is a cute moment. Also, it is science. Take that, fuckers!

So, apparently some dude did a test in the '60s about self control and whether children had any. They put an Oreo on a plate and told the child s/he could have the one Oreo now, or s/he could have TWO Oreos later. And then the adult would leave the room and the child would be faced with the decision. Please watch this video. Please. (The original video I had up, that corresponded with the experiment is gone. I am seriously sad. But this is another version. Only with marshmallows (and jesus!). Enjoy!) And Radiolab does a short podcast about this and it is actually really interesting. Apparently the children who had the self control to wait ended up doing over 100 points better on their SATs and were generally better students and more successful adults. Here, listen: http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2009/03/09/mischel%e2%80%99s-marshmallows/ The whole time I was trying to figure out what decision I would have made at the age of 4. And I think I probably would have poked at it a bit and then sat there like a stone trying to survive the waiting time until I could devour both delicious morsels. I would do this not because I was well behaved or advanced or able to control myself, but only because I knew how rare it was to get my hands on something so illicit and processed. I am still unsure on what I would do as an adult, but that's a whole other story...

No comments:

Post a Comment