Marshmallows and See’s Candy – Is it all the same?

I had to go to Castries last week and stopped in the Peace Corps Office. When I walked into the volunteer office there was a big Federal Express Box sitting in the corner of the room. I walked over to it and there was my name in big print. Packages are fun! Every Peace Corps Volunteer loves getting packages from home.

All my favorite things were in that box: My favorite game, Rummy Cube; a bag of dried Mangoes from Costco, possibly the best ever; small pouches of dried Starbucks Coffee, a new product that tastes close to fresh brewed; a large jar of Jelly Belly’s with several printed copies of the flavor guide which I will share with the village children; colorful paperclips, a small thing that I have needed so many times, but didn’t have.


The last thing I pulled from the package was a box wrapped in familiar black and white paper. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the box was this: I need friends around when I tear the wrapping and lift the lid. I know that if I open this box while I’m alone it will be deadly. I have a hard time eating an "appropriate" amount of candy when there is a whole box to be had.


There is a famous experiment conducted at Stanford by Walter Michel some years ago. It’s known as the Marshmallow Experiment. It is a simple experiment that correlates impulse control with intelligence. The experiment was longitudinal.


Four year old children were taken to a room one at a time. Each child was left in the room with a marshmallow. The child was told by the experimenter that he/she could eat the marshmallow right then, but if they waited until the experimenter returned then they would receive an additional marshmallow.


The children squirmed and tried to distract themselves. Some children succumbed to the temptation while others waited up to twenty minutes for the experimenter to return and to receive another puffy white sugary treat.


Eighteen years later those same children were studied and it was found that those that waited scored higher on their SAT Tests. Impulse control can be correlated with intelligence.


So, why am I telling you this? Just look at the picture of an open box I found online. I’m sure if I open this box I will have zero impulse control. But I do seem to have some control over opening the box…so what does that mean? Does it mean I have impulse control or does it mean that I know I don’t have impulse control? Would the children have better impulse control if the marshmallow was in a bag and couldn’t see it, but knew it was there? What does this say about me? Does it matter?


Watching these kids reminds me of watching myself look at this candy box!