A recent article in the New Yorker magazine looks at the psychological experiments on children measuring their abilities to delay gratification, an indicator of success.

One professor is quoted as saying that “self control” may be more important than “intelligence” as a prescription for success in life.

The kids who hadn’t been able to wait sixty seconds could now wait fifteen minutes. “All I’ve done is given them some tips from their mental user manual,” Mischel says. “Once you realize that will power is just a matter of learning how to control your attention and thoughts, you can really begin to increase it.”

The experiments would position kids in rooms alone with tempting treats, such as candy. Those who could wait would be rewarded with more; those who couldn’t got a single piece. The main researcher, Dr. Mischel, thinks the ability for self-control can be developed into habits with the right cues.

According to Mischel, even the most mundane routines of childhood—such as not snacking before dinner, or saving up your allowance, or holding out until Christmas morning—are really sly exercises in cognitive training: we’re teaching ourselves how to think so that we can outsmart our desires.

(via Bea Cantor.)

I believe as a child I would have faired well with this test. Seemingly as I grow older, I become more impatient. Today? I might just grab the candy and run…

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