Marshmallow Experiment Adult Fail
If you read the pop psychology schlock, you’ve no doubt heard about that marshmallow experiment -- you know, the one where they offer a child one marshmallow right away or two if the child can resist the temptation and wait a while. Well, some kids -- many kids -- would rather have that one treat immediately rather than wait. And this result is generally interpreted as a sign of “low impulse control”, which is generally regarded as a bad thing -- leading to poor life choices, substance abuse, criminality, and so on.
Well, it’s now a few weeks past Easter. All the stores are liquidating their stock of seasonal candy. And those tasty yellow marshmallow chicks that you may remember from your childhood are currently being given away for ten cents on the dollar. [Hurry. Supplies are limited. And at these prices, this offer will NOT be repeated (well, at least not until right after the next major holiday when all the candy will go on sale again.)]
So anyway, instead of having one treat on Easter, you could be having ten today.
See the tie in? (It should be obvious.) And my resulting questions to you are simplicity themselves.
How’d you do?
Did you pass the test?
You one of them there rational
folks?
Or do you suffer from that there
heinous life debilitating condition otherwise known as “low impulse control”?
Or then again, maybe even more important than random name calling (which never gets anyone anywhere, anyhow) would be to ask if you plan on doing anything differently the next time a major holiday rolls around?
And either way (yay or nay), what does that ultimately say about you?
Or about some schlock psycho-bable experiment?
You ask me? It’s something to think about.
Or maybe you’re like me and one marshmallow chicken is more than enough.