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Delayed Gratification
PsychUniverse ^ | 3 December 2025 | Dr. Balaji Niwlikar

Posted on 12/10/2025 7:15:10 AM PST by PeterPrinciple

The Original Marshmallow Experiment

The Marshmallow Experiment began in the late 1960s and early 1970s at Stanford University, led by psychologist Walter Mischel and his colleagues (Mischel et al., 1972). The setup was famously simple: a child was placed at a table with a marshmallow (or sometimes a cookie or pretzel). The researcher explained that the child could eat the marshmallow immediately, but if they waited until the researcher returned—usually around 15 minutes—they would receive a second marshmallow.

The children’s reactions ranged from hilarious to heartbreaking. Some covered their eyes. Some sang to themselves. Some sniffed, stroked, or poked the marshmallow as if trying to absorb its essence without technically breaking the rules. And, yes, plenty of kids just went ahead and gobbled it down

But what made the study groundbreaking was not what happened in the moment—it was what happened years later.

........................................

A pivotal study by Watts, Duncan, and Quan (2018) re-examined the data using a much larger and more diverse sample. Their findings suggested that when you account for variables such as family background, socioeconomic status, and early cognitive ability, the marshmallow-waiting effect becomes significantly smaller.

In other words, a child’s ability to wait wasn’t just about personal grit. It also depended heavily on:

How much the child trusted adults to follow through Whether food scarcity was an issue at home How stable or unpredictable their environment was Their previous life experiences Kids aren’t irrational. If your environment teaches you that promises often go unfulfilled, why would you trust that waiting brings reward? If food is not always guaranteed, eating now is a smart strategy.


TOPICS: AMERICA - The Right Way!!; Education; Science
KEYWORDS: children; delayedgratification; fools; ghostbusters; idiots; staypuft; waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
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To: PeterPrinciple

You’re a jerk.

I engaged in conversation and you came back with some nasty shit.


21 posted on 12/10/2025 8:51:42 AM PST by Celerity
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To: Omnivore-Dan

I read this again and now have some second thoughts about what the message is. Maybe like wanting everything now like many young adults freshly out of college and demanding ridiculous salaries instead of working hard and working their way up to better pay or position?


22 posted on 12/10/2025 8:57:26 AM PST by Omnivore-Dan (have to )
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To: PeterPrinciple
How many times have we waited patiently for the GOP to give us the promised second marshmallow only to not merely get cheated on the deal, we also have the first one taken away too?

Remember Pam Bondi's phase one release of the Epstein files? That turned out to be largely known information and there was no phase 2. There is no second marshmallow and the first one was a fib too. Personally, I think that a lot of Republicans were on the Epstein flights and the potential release scared the party. I am more of the opinion to release everything and if Washington burns (figuratively, of course) the better to burn it now.

23 posted on 12/10/2025 9:41:27 AM PST by KarlInOhio (I pray that the sleeping giant has finally awakened and been filled with a terrible resolve.)
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To: Celerity; PeterPrinciple

Post 4 was an emotional outburst.


24 posted on 12/10/2025 9:42:21 AM PST by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: Celerity; PeterPrinciple
I’m not sure I fully understand what you’re saying?

I'm sure it is based on a misapplication of the article.

25 posted on 12/10/2025 10:19:30 AM PST by Mr.Unique (My boss wants me to sign up for a 401K. No way I'm running that far! )
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To: ClearCase_guy
I think that you gave missed the point.

Your comment seems to focus on the final effects of a corporate entity, not an individual response to a situation where one is immature amd not initially aware of being tested.

Your assumptions re corporate behaviors are not well-founded.

26 posted on 12/10/2025 1:04:37 PM PST by imardmd1 (To learn is to live; the joy of living: to teach. Fiat Lux! )
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To: PeterPrinciple

Well put.


27 posted on 12/10/2025 8:56:34 PM PST by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpin' -- it's not just for DNC shills anymore -- oh, wait, yeah it is.)
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To: hinckley buzzard
A great flaw in today's economics and political results is the introduction of the credit card that allows one to get instant gratification, delaying the cost of it.

Across the population, disobedience to the warning of Scripture prevails.

Romans 13:8 (AV):

"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law."

Moral and fiscal accountability is at stake in this commandment. The Greek negative gere, μηδενι μηδεν. is doubly negative, about as emphatic asa one can express in the NT text. "No, never/not at all" would be the sense of it. T run up thousands, millions, bi;;ions, trillions induvudyally or nationallyis very, vert unchristian in any context; and deserves very severe chastening, even up to physical death.
28 posted on 12/10/2025 10:08:27 PM PST by imardmd1 (To learn is to live; the joy of living: to teach. Fiat Lux! )
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To: Celerity

You’re a jerk.

I engaged in conversation and you came back with some nasty shit.


That is more of a reflection of you than me. You Choose to be offended rather than learn something.

When I tell someone to read it and let their lip move, I mean it and practice is. It increases the learning process. You think instead of skimming over words.


29 posted on 12/11/2025 8:15:13 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
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To: PeterPrinciple
When I tell someone to read it and let their lip move, I mean it and practice is.

*snort*

30 posted on 12/11/2025 8:18:24 AM PST by Sirius Lee ("Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.)
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To: PeterPrinciple

Bullshit.

Your response was nasty and stuck up.

Everyone here had better get on the ball. Read how Democrats treat each other on leftist sites. Yeah, they’re psychos but the are powerful in numbers because they don’t treat other like shit ... As we do on FR.

Trump is their bogeyman and bogeymen pull people together. We here have so much confidence in our own individuality, right to defend and belief in higher power that we don’t have a bogeyman.

The unfortunate effect of that is that we aren’t pulled together at all. About 15 percent of FR content is just lashing out at each other for such petty, minor differences in opinion that is no wonder when elections come that we lose.

So no, you talked to me like shit. Cut it out and show some damned respect. Sheesh, I wanted you to go more into detail of your post and you told me I need to learn to read. *$#& you. I know how to read.


31 posted on 12/11/2025 10:57:12 AM PST by Celerity
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To: Celerity

So no, you talked to me like shit. Cut it out and show some damned respect. Sheesh, I wanted you to go more into detail of your post and you told me I need to learn to read. *$#& you. I know how to read.


reading and comprehension are different skills.

Again, you chose to be offended, rather than consider the content. I was very gentle and direct with you and practice everything I told you.


32 posted on 12/12/2025 6:39:08 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
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To: Celerity

Since you brought the subject up.

The point of the article is understanding human nature. How human nature can be used for good and how it can be used against you.

There are other points of human nature that we need to understand. Like imprinting, God intended it for good, perverts use it for destruction. Do your own research and thinking on imprinting.

You get understanding by studying and reflecting, not skimming an article. The left is using this human nature against us. They are lying to you, They give you all the negatives without showing you the progress that has been made. THEY ARE MANIPULATING YOU. They don’t don’t want you to see the long term plans. They want you to see the short term failure.

We need to understand this bit of human nature. We need to understand it is going to take a generation to change things. We need to understand that all the little things are important and are advances.

WE NEED TO STOP REPEATING THEIR MESSAGE!

Now to the other point that offends you. Questions are good, but you need to do some thinking to learn and ask the right questions.

I will commend you for asking a question. But it scares me. People want to be told what something says. They want quick and easy answers. AI scares me to the bone. People want to be sheep to be told what to think and do.

In my world there are idiots and knuckleheads. Knuckleheads can learn, idiots do not. I honored you by considering you a knucklehead.

Knuckleheads have some honored members. I consider the 12 apostles knuckleheads. If they can learn and be corrected, so can I. There are many great leaders who were knuckleheads, they failed their way to success.

Knuckleheads are a variation of Sheep Dogs/Warriors.

https://learntocarry.com/files/On-Sheep-Wolves-And-Sheepdogs.pdf

Will you take the time to read the above. Let your lips move, print it out for you wall, explain to others what it means to you. Does the article connect with you in any way?


33 posted on 12/12/2025 7:15:57 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
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To: hinckley buzzard
A great flaw in today's economics and political results is the introduction of the credit card that allows one to get instant gratification, delaying the cost of it.

What has enslaved the population is the widespread disobedience to the warning given by the Noly Scriptures, summed up here:

Romans 13:8 (AV):

"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law."

Moral and fiscal accountability is at stake in this commandment. The Greek negative here, μηδενι μηδεν. is doubly negative, about as emphatic asa one can express in the NT text. "No, never/not ever/not at all" would be the sense of it.

To run up thousands, millions, bijjions, trillions individually or nationally is very, very unchristian in any context; and deserves very severe chastening, even up to physical death.

34 posted on 12/13/2025 6:59:10 PM PST by imardmd1 (To learn is to live; the joy of living: to teach. Fiat Lux! )
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