Or hungrier kids (aka poorer kids) get the marshmallow first. Or those in greater need of serotonin (at least I think it’s serotonin) you get from sugar, etc. There’s a variety of issues here, but that’s true of most “experiments” that aren’t actually randomized controlled trial experiments.
Or they’re just natural born addicts like myself and need that instant reward and think to hell with my future self. That’s his problem. Present me just got a marshmallow.
A shower thought about the original experiment:
It may have only measured how effective “waiting for future gains” was, as a strategy, for each child, in their circumstance.
So the real discovery may be only that the children already had a pretty good idea how promising their own futures were. :(
Or hungrier kids (aka poorer kids) get the marshmallow first. Or those in greater need of serotonin (at least I think it’s serotonin) you get from sugar, etc. There’s a variety of issues here, but that’s true of most “experiments” that aren’t actually randomized controlled trial experiments.
Or they’re just natural born addicts like myself and need that instant reward and think to hell with my future self. That’s his problem. Present me just got a marshmallow.