findingfeather: nyssawin:Interesting fact: this test was originally ment to look at a kids “
findingfeather: nyssawin: Interesting fact: this test was originally ment to look at a kids “willpower” but it actually tests a kids economic status. Poor kids will eat the first marshmallow because they’ve learned that food/resources may not always stick around while richer kids are more willing to trust that they’ll get the two marshmallows later. Still a good metaphor for the current crisis but it’s not saying that Americans lack the patients for the second marshmallow, it’s saying most of us can’t afford to wait for it. Later testing actually revealed that it was mostly about whether or not the kids trusted the adults who told them they’d get two marshmallows later. (Or more precisely, the reliability of the promise of marshmallows later.) This often had an interaction with the stability and safety of their home of origin, which has a complex correlation with poverty and lack of resources, but not a strictly or simplistically predictive one. Which is actually MUCH more germane to the current state of the USA and the American public’s interaction with the pandemic. And also directly correlates to what people who have studied previous pandemics have said. -- source link