Mallowed be thy name

Have you heard of the marshmallow test? It is very famous in behavioural psychology circles, yet it had passed me by until I read a recent interview with political guru David Brooks in the Sunday Times.

Brooks has been over here punting a book called The Social Animal. He refers to the marshmallow experiment that started at Stanford University in 1960s with psychologists studying the behaviour of a group of four-year-olds. They sat a group of kids down individually and presented them all with a marshmallow. They were told if they did not eat the marshmallow for 15 minutes, then they could have two marshmallows, the theory being those who resisted the temptation were more likely to go on to university and be big earners in later life. Psychology says by resisting, the kids learnt the ...