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The Marshmallow Test
Book

The Marshmallow Test

Mastering Self-Control

Walter Mischel
Little, Brown US, 2014

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Background
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Cognition researcher Walter Mischel offers a useful, accessible report to give readers a greater understanding of the role of self-control and how it relates to crucial mental attributes. He starts by describing the “Marshmallow Test,” which challenges small children to try to wait before eating a single marshmallow long enough to earn a second marshmallow. He integrates other authorities’ scientific studies on self-control, links the data to solving real-world problems and explains how individual Marshmallow Test results predicted kids’ future success. He also gives you a greater understanding of the role of self-control and how it relates to crucial mental attributes and to control of harmful habits. His book will please those who want to help kids succeed, to learn how the mind functions or to improve their self-control.

Take-Aways

  • Some preschoolers managed to delay gratification when researchers gave them a choice of eating one marshmallow now or getting two after waiting for 20 minutes.
  • That’s the “Marshmallow Test,” and its results predict future success in school and life.
  • Little children who devised their own distraction strategies and exercised self-control did better in later life.

About the Author

The co-author of Introduction to Personality, Walter Mischel is a professor of humane letters in psychology at Columbia University. He has written more than 200 scientific papers.

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