The Marshmallow Experiment

Researchers at Stanford University offered a group of four-year-old children a choice between one marshmallow now or several marshmallows if they waited alone in a room for 15 minutes. The children who were able to delay gratification, to wait for the greater reward, grew up to be more successful. They attained higher levels of educational achievement and healthier body mass indexes. I would have failed the marshmallow experiment as a child. I wouldn't have believed that an adult would return with a greater quantity of such a high value reward. Earlier this year, my mother starved herself to death. It took four weeks. During that time, I sat at her bedside with mashed potato, gravy, crust