Delaying gratification is about worldview as much as willpower
Beliefs about others affect kids’ ability to resist temptation and wait for better rewards
By Bruce Bower
Willpower alone doesn’t explain why some children forgo a marshmallow in hand for the prospect of getting two gooey treats later. Kids’ beliefs about the reliability of the people around them, such as the trustworthiness of an experimenter, can dramatically shape their willingness to wait for a sweeter payoff, a new study finds.
Expectations about whether it’s best to grab goodies before they disappear or trust that bigger returns will come later are as important to delaying gratification as self-control, say psychologist Celeste Kidd of the University of Rochester in New York and her colleagues. If so, preschoolers’ family backgrounds may partly explain why young children able to wait for more treats adjust particularly well as teenagers (SN: 5/27/89, p. 325).