Test Of Willpower

In a “remarkable” long-term study undertaken over 32 years in New Zealand, a team of international researchers tracked 1000 people in 1972 or 1973 from the age of three, rating their observed and reported self-control and willpower in a different ways. The findings, concluded in 2010, confirmed sociologist Walter Mischel’s findings into how young children resisted instant gratification. In a study done in the 1960s, Mischel offered them the choice of a marshmallow now, or two if they could wait 15 minutes. Years later, he tracked some of the children down, and made a startling discovery. What the scientists involved in the New Zealand study found was that, even taking into account differences of intelligence, race and social class, those with high self-control — those who, in Mischel’s experiment, held out for two marshmallows later — grew into healthier, happier and wealthier adults.