trying to make sense of it all...

In one classic study from the late 1960s, fondly known as the marshmallow experiment, scientists at Stanford University led by psychologist Walter Mischel (now at Columbia University) offered 4-year-olds a marshmallow, and left it invitingly in front of them. The hitch: if the kids waited to eat the marshmallow until the experimenter, who stepped out of the room, returned in a few minutes, they could have two marshmallows. More than a decade later, the children who waited and got the second marshmallow scored much higher on the SAT, supporting the idea that impulse control and other aspects of “emotional intelligence” are linked to academic performance. The reward delayers were also less likely to be obese, to have become addicted to illegal drugs, and to be divorced—outcomes that are more likely in people who go for immediate gratification.