Don’t trust your gut: why self-doubt is a key ingredient for success
There’s a marshmallow on the table. You have fifteen minutes not to eat it.
A second big, fluffy marshmallow awaits you — but only if you resist the urge to eat the first one.
One reward now, or two rewards later: The decision might seem obvious to you, but what about for a hungry preschooler?
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a researcher named Walter Mischel conducted a series of studies exploring self control and delayed gratification in young children. In the now-famous “marshmallow experiment,” he tested preschoolers’ willpower by placing a marshmallow on a table in front of them.
Before leaving the room, Mischel explained to the children that if they waited to eat the marshmallow until he returned, they could have another one. Predictably, most of the children couldn’t muster up the self-control to defer their reward.
But the study didn’t stop there: Researchers followed the children for decades, exploring the link between their self-control and success later in life.
The ongoing studies showed that those who resisted their marshmallow-impulse in favor of a better opportunity later were more generally successful.
