this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2026
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This is based on the marshmallow test. A child is left alone in a room with a marshmallow. If they don't eat it, they are promised a chocolate bar or something better. The study followed up participants and found that the marshmallow resisters were more successful in life.
Later research has shown that this is just another correlate of wealth. Children with wealthy parents will more likely be in a stable environment where they have access to candy and more likely to trust authority figures to be reliable. They will also, of course, be more likely to get better, stable jobs, and then turn around, like all wealthy people, looking for individual traits that make them deserving of their success, unlike all those short-sighted marshmallow munchers. How are you going to make your first billion by thirty if you can't even stop yourself from eating a fucking marshmallow for 60 seconds, jesus christ.
Right. For someone in an unstable environment, having a good now is a better choice since it probably won't be there later.
I do wonder what you'd find if you controlled for wealth and stability. I feel like some people have really poor impulse control and delayed gratification despite coming from a stable home life