Stanford marshmallow experiment
Prueba del malvavisco (experimento de gratificación diferida)
- Date
- 1970 · confidence high
- Place
- Bing Nursery School, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
- Credited to
- Walter Mischel and Ebbe B. Ebbesen
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Mischel and Ebbesen offered young children one marshmallow immediately or two if they waited about 15 minutes alone in the room, to study childhood self-regulation and delayed gratification. Later follow-ups linked waiting longer to better academic and life outcomes, though recent replications (2018, 2024) with more diverse samples have greatly reduced or questioned that effect.
Later replication studies (2012, 2018, 2024) have shown the test does not reliably predict adult functioning, and that a child's trust that the experimenter will keep their promise, along with socioeconomic context, matter more than self-control itself.
What it led to
- A research programme on self-control and child development
- A later debate on the real weight of trust in the experimenter and socioeconomic status versus 'willpower'