Gayle Force Shows No Sign Of Abating

Garfield Robinson says you can’t have too much of a good thing when it comes to the batting talents of cricketing enigma Chris Gayle

- Garfield Robinson

Five decades or so ago, Dr. Walter Mischel, a psychologist and professor at StanfordUniversity, conducted what came to be known as the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment.

According to the Positive Psychology Program website “Mischel and his colleagues wanted to see if preschool children (around four years old) had developed the mental capacity to resist the temptation of a small reward to earn a larger reward later. They presented each of the 653 subjects with a choice: ring a bell and get one marshmallow immediately or wait 15 minutes and earn two.

“While a minority of them instantly opted for a single marshmallow, most children attempted to hold on, for varying times, to get their reward. In the end, only about thirty percent were able to delay gratification for the full fifteen-minute period earning their second marshmallow.”

Following up on his experiment years later, Mischel found that the children who waited for two marshmallows turned out to be more successful as teenagers and as adults. They earned much higher SAT scores, developed superior social and emotional coping skills and were even less likely to abuse drugs.

The lesson is therefore clear; the habit of delaying gratification can be a useful one to develop. Indulging in an immediate pleasure can be tempting, but is it worth it considering you might gain even greater satisfaction in the end?