The most famous child psychology experiment in history: The overlooked side of "delayed gratification"

© Rochester Review/University of Rochester

Leviathan Press:

The author of this article, Yuko Munakata, studied undergraduate at Stanford University, received her doctorate in psychology from Carnegie Mellon University, and is currently a professor of psychology at the University of Colorado Boulder. She once gave a famous TED talk titled "The Science Behind How Parents Influence Child Development." Her conclusion is that parents must have an impact on their children, but the results of this impact are not what parents can expect. Students who are interested can take a look.

(www.ted.com/talks/yuko_munakata_why_most_parenting_advice_is_wrong)

The research in today's article is also very interesting. Yuko Sohō added cross-cultural research to a seemingly classic experiment, which led to unexpected results.

In 2017, my family and I moved from Boulder, Colorado, to live in Kyoto, Japan. My children noticed many cultural differences right away. For one, Japanese homes typically don’t have central heating, and we arrived on an unusually cold February, so my children would huddle under a kotatsu — a low table with a heater attached — to keep warm. After attending a nearby elementary school, my children saw how their peers cleaned the classroom and served meals, unlike in the United States, where each task had a dedicated staff member.

One of their most memorable experiences was during their first school lunch. As they lined up with their classmates to get their meals and then took their lunch trays to their seats to start eating, other students quickly shook their heads and waved their hands. Although my children did not speak Japanese, the message was clear and they stopped eating.

© Inspired Forward

When every student in the classroom was seated and ready to eat, they all said in unison: "Itadakimasu" - literally "I humbly accept" (this phrase is used before a meal in Japan to express gratitude for the food and respect for the efforts of the person who prepared the food. Editor's note), similar to the French "bon appétit". Then everyone started eating together. The next day, my children waited with their classmates to start eating.

When my kids described this, it got me thinking. Many studies have used delayed snacking as a measure of self-control[1] and have found that the ability to delay gratification predicts a brighter future[2]. So, do Japanese kids have some special advantage?

As a psychologist, this event inspired me to reexamine a classic experiment involving delayed gratification, a reexamination that changed my views on self-control, individual differences, human development, scientific fairness, and cultural inheritance.

Psychologist Walter Mischel (1930-2018). © Association for Psychological Science

The classic "marshmallow test," devised by the late psychologist Walter Mischel, involves children being offered a marshmallow and then being told that they can choose to have it immediately or wait for the marshmallow giver to return and receive two. The children are left alone in a room with this tempting snack.

© The 74

Psychologists often view the length of time a child can resist the sweet treat as a measure of their self-control: how effectively they can suppress impulsive behavior and work toward longer-term goals. Some studies have found that children who perform better on the marshmallow test as children tend to have better outcomes in school, relationships, and health later in life [3][4].

In collaboration with Satoru Saito of Kyoto University and Kaichi Yanaoka of the University of Tokyo, my research team introduced some innovations to this test [5]. We studied 144 children aged four to five in the United States and Japan. First, we made sure that all the children had eaten a marshmallow before. We asked parents how long their children could wait until someone else was given a treat before eating it, and we assessed their children’s ability to inhibit impulsive behavior.

The children were then faced with a classic test: Would they rather have one marshmallow now, or two later? Most of the American children waited less than four minutes for one marshmallow. Most of the Japanese children waited the longest for two marshmallows—15 minutes!

© LinkedIn

If we had stopped there, we might have simply concluded that Japanese kids had better self-control. But we did another test. We presented the kids with a wrapped gift and told them they could open it now, or if they waited, they could get two gifts. The results were exactly the opposite. Most of the Japanese kids opened their gifts within 5 minutes, while most of the American kids waited a maximum of 15 minutes or close to it.

What's going on? It seems that by repeatedly experiencing delayed gratification, children can form habits that make them more likely to wait in the future. According to their parents' reports, Japanese children have stronger habits of waiting for food than American children. The stronger these habits were, the longer the children waited for their two marshmallows. But when it comes to opening presents, American children may be more accustomed to waiting. Unopened birthday presents may sit on the table until the party is over. Christmas presents may be placed under the tree days before Christmas and not opened until December 25. In Japan, people give gifts year-round on simple occasions that don't involve the traditional custom of waiting.

© Real Simple

When our test of delayed gratification matched their cultural experience, the children not only waited longer, but also seemed to rely on different skills. We assessed how sensitive the children were to social norms. For the American children, the more sensitive they were to social norms, the longer they waited to open their gifts; for the Japanese children, the more sensitive they were to social norms, the longer they waited to eat their marshmallows. It no longer mattered whether they could effectively inhibit their impulsive behavior.

These findings suggest that delaying gratification isn’t just about self-control, but also about cultural habits and sensitivity to them. These habits can vary between cultures and between different groups within the same culture, depending on factors like genetics, socioeconomic status, and geographic region. So when a child waits for two marshmallows and succeeds in school and life, it may be partly a reflection of their experiences and habits around delaying gratification. These habits may actually complement their self-control abilities, helping them delay gratification in ways that benefit them in school and in the future. Children learn how to navigate social situations, respect elders, handle chores, or complete homework in a particular cultural context, and if their habits match the demands they face, this may help them later.

This research also raises questions about the big picture in my field. Our work shows that psychology and other scientific studies sometimes capture cultural nuances that scientists may not be aware of. If we had studied just one country or just one reward system, we would have come to completely different conclusions.

How much more research on human behavior is influenced by a narrow cultural lens? Similarly, is our research and academic culture often biased toward a small subset of perspectives and experiences? In research, we may make comparisons without taking into account cultural norms, years of practice, and social support systems that may make certain people more difficult or more likely to perform a particular task.

Fortunately, we can take steps to address this problem. Placing historically marginalized voices at the heart of our science can address misconceptions and omissions in research. Doing so can also lead to a deeper, more unbiased understanding of human behavior.

By Yuko Munakata

Translated by tamiya2

Proofreading/Rabbit's Light Footsteps

This article is based on the Creative Commons License (BY-NC) and is published by tamiya2 on Leviathan

The article only reflects the author's views and does not necessarily represent the position of Leviathan