Have you heard of the experiment Stanford conducted on The Power of Delayed Gratification?
If so you can skip ahead ..
For those of you who aren't familiar with the study, here is a condensed explanation. It's quite interesting and I tend to notice whether people have long term goals or short term goals.
The Marshmallow Experiment
The experiment began by bringing each child into a private room, sitting them down in a chair, and placing a marshmallow on the table in front of them.
The researcher told the child that he was going to leave the room and that if the child did not eat the marshmallow while he was away, then they would be rewarded with a second marshmallow. However, if the child decided to eat the first one before the researcher came back, then they would not get a second marshmallow.
So the choice was simple: one treat right now or two treats later.
The researcher left the room for 15 minutes.
As you can imagine, the footage of the children waiting alone in the room was rather entertaining. Some kids jumped up and ate the first marshmallow as soon as the researcher closed the door. Others wiggled and bounced and scooted in their chairs as they tried to restrain themselves, but eventually gave in to temptation a few minutes later. And finally, a few of the children did manage to wait the entire time.
Published in 1972, this popular study became known as The Marshmallow Experiment, but it wasn't the treat that made it famous. The interesting part came years later.
The Power of Delayed Gratification
As the years rolled on and the children grew up, the researchers conducted follow up studies and tracked each child's progress in a number of areas. What they found was surprising.
The children who were willing to delay gratification and waited to receive the second marshmallow ended up having higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, lower likelihood of obesity, better responses to stress, better social skills as reported by their parents, and generally better scores in a range of other life measures. (You can see the followup studies https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2658056)
The researchers followed each child for more than 40 years and over and over again, the group who waited patiently for the second marshmallow succeed in whatever capacity they were measuring. In other words, this series of experiments proved that the ability to delay gratification was critical for success in life.
And if you look around, you’ll see this playing out everywhere…
If you delay the gratification of watching television and get your homework done now, then you’ll learn more and get better grades.
If you delay the gratification of buying desserts and chips at the store, then you’ll eat healthier when you get home.
If you delay the gratification of finishing your workout early and put in a few more reps, then you’ll be stronger.
Source and additional information https://jamesclear.com/delayed-gratification
I often think of this experiment when I look around Steem, can you build an audience or do you just want quick rewards?
Will we build a strong community and allow a Steem Economy to develop? Or will we self vote ourselves into the Ponzi Scheme that Tone Vays predicts?
Can you hold your Steem in order to make more? Or do you send everything out as quickly as you get it?
I realize there are other explanations for various behaviors such as financial needs and goals, but I think there are many who obviously suffer from impulse control and just want to shove all the MarshMellows in their mouth as fast as they can.
More information on the study and a couple of cute videos of the kids! :)
This one is just cute:
Informative:
How to work on delayed gratification
Let me know your thoughts, as a side note: I literally got interested in the topic of self control when I was in my early 20s, making bad choices and suffering all the results that come along with that behavior.
I actually worked on delayed gratification and other impulse control issues for years. I am still not fixed, but at least I have different challenges now. :)
