All this talk about the Marshmallow Test made me curious how my own kid would react. I’m too lazy to actually turn my kid into a lab rat, so I just put the question to her hypothetically after dinner one day.
Me: What would you do if I took you into a room with only a table, a chair and a marshmallow on a plate on the table, and told you that I was going to do some things and that if you waited to eat the marshmallow until I came back, you could have two?
Rio: I would follow you, because I would not like to be left alone in the dark.
Me: Oh. What if there was a light?
Rio: Fire is not enough light.
Me: Fire?
Rio: And then you would give me a whole bag of marshmallows. And a bag of chocolate.
Me: I would what?
Rio: If you have marshmallows, you have to have fire and chocolate and cracker sandwiches. Did you know that is a rule?
Me, following along very slowly: S’mores. oh, yes.
Rio: Yes? You are really going to do this for me? Even though I love sweet treats and you don’t like to buy sweet treats and I am always asking for sweet treats and you are always saying no you are really going to buy me a whole bag of marshmallows and a whole bag of chocolate? In real life? Yay!
Me: um…
(For a less frivolous take on the test, check out this New Yorker article. I’m pretty sure I’m a classic example of a “low-delay” personality: bright, flaky, ADHD, creative, poor impulse control. They’ll probably have to stamp that last one on my gravestone.)
What about you? Would you have eaten the marshmallow?
[ETA: New research analysis from the nice people who brought us Nurtureshock suggests that the Marshmallow Test is so much fluff]
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