The Marshmallow Test | Rabbi David Sutton

There's a fascinating experiment that was done by a research psychologist, called ‘The Marshmallow Test’. They experimented with about 50 young children around the age of five. And they put them in a room alone with a video on. And they placed a marshmallow on the table. And they told the children: You have a choice. You can either take one marshmallow now, or wait 60 seconds and get two marshmallows. And they put them in the room and they closed the door. And you see some of them pop the marshmallow in their mouth immediately. Some of them start whistling a song. Some of them start biting their fingers. One of them licks it or sniffs it, and all different ways that the children react over this 60-second wait. They come back 12-13 years later, these children have graduated high school, they might be in the middle of college. And they find that, lo and behold, the children that waited the 60 seconds and were able to delay their immediate gratification, were more successful in life. They had higher S.A.T. scores. They got into better colleges. And the children that popped the marshmallow into their mouth immediately and wanted to have immediate gratification, these were the ones that were not successful. Now we, Jews, believe that our whole life is about delayed gratification. There is what we call an Olam Haba, a World to Come. In the future, we're going to be rewarded. And we have a lot of temptations in life. And you can look at all those things that you shouldn’t look at, as marshmallows. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu is telling you, You can have one marshmallow now, and probably pay for it, or wait a little bit and you'll get two marshmallows later. Because any area of self-control that we hold back here, we're not losing out. We're going to get it later and even more. So, therefore, every time you control yourself, tell yourself: A. I'm getting two marshmallows later. B. I'm training myself and conditioning myself in a great trait, an attribute for life, in general, to be able to delay gratification, and that will bring more success not only in this world, but in the next world, as well.