Resisting the urge to scroll through Instagram to finish your assignment on time? Skipping your favourite desserts after dinner to reach your goal weight? Saving up for a new laptop instead of your weekly splurge on Amazon? Congratulations! This means that you have successfully managed to delay gratification. Continuously preached in self-help books, delayed gratification is quite simply the ability to resist the impulse to receive a readily available reward in hopes of receiving a larger and long-lasting reward in the future. [1] Although a seemingly simple act, delaying gratification as a means of self-control or self-regulation is associated with greater success in health, academics, work, finances, and relationships. [1] [2]
A study examining the relationship between delay of gratification, job satisfaction, procrastination, and stress related to work among high school teachers revealed a positive correlation between delayed gratification and job satisfaction. Moreover, delay of gratification and procrastination were indirect predictors of job satisfaction via stress related to work. [3] This shows how putting off work that results in larger rewards for immediate pleasures is linked with stress and wellbeing. Furthermore, the inability to delay gratification has been associated with substance abuse, pathological gambling, poor academic performance, obesity, and mental disorders related to deficits in impulse control, such as ADHD. [4] [5] Research has also shown that delayed gratification as a means of pursuing your goals is most effective when the later reward is relevant to your goals and when they cannot be attained through other means. [5]
The most crucial evidence for delayed gratification comes from the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment by Walter Mischel and his colleagues during the 1970s. [1] [6] The experiment consisted of children who were brought into a room where the experimenter placed a single marshmallow on the table. The researcher told the children that they would receive an additional marshmallow if they waited for the researcher to return before eating the marshmallow in front of them. While some children were able to resist their impulse to eat the marshmallow before the researcher returned, others did not wait to receive the second marshmallow. [6] Follow-up research later years showed that the children that were able to delay gratification in these laboratory conditions demonstrated better social responsibility, social competence and received higher SAT scores as teenagers. [6] [7] The results from these follow-up studies established delayed gratification as a key predictor of success in life via the Marshmallow Test.
However, it is important to note that the Marshmallow Test has famously come under harsh scrutiny in recent years, which has put the concept of delayed gratification into a new perspective. [8] [9] With a larger and more ethnically and financially inclusive sample, there is little evidence showing that the ability to delay gratification predicts your life’s success. Instead, the participants’ socio-economic background played a much bigger role in determining whether you could wait for the second marshmallow. [9] Research has shown that the uncertainty that comes with leading an economically and socially disadvantaged life might make children more motivated to go for short-term benefits rather than waiting for long-term ones. [8]
The past two years provide an excellent example of how uncertainty can affect the ability to delay gratification. During the pandemic, we needed to keep aside immediate and momentary pleasures such as meeting up with friends and family and going out to large public spaces for everyone’s safety. However, keeping up with this became harder as weeks and months rolled by with increasing uncertainty over how long we could sustain living a life away from normalcy. [10] Waiting for that second marshmallow was a matter of saving lives. On the other hand, trust also plays an important factor in delaying gratification. In the study by Celeste Kidd, the researchers were made to not follow through on their promise of the second item. When the experiment was rerun with the same children, most kids that did not receive the second treat after waiting did not choose to wait this time around. [6]
Therefore, we cannot say that delayed gratification at a young age definitively predicts success later in life. Instead, it is a result of a combination of factors such as intelligence and socio-economic background. Nonetheless, it is an essential skill that fosters healthy habits and can lead to greater life satisfaction in a number of areas when practised.
References:
[1] Conti, R. (2019). Delay of gratification | psychology. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 28 August 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/science/delay-of-gratification.
[2] Cohen, I. (2017). The Benefits of Delaying Gratification. Psychology Today. Retrieved 28 August 2021, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/your-emotional-meter/201712/the-benefits-delaying-gratification.
[3] Mohsin, F., & Ayub, N. (2014). The relationship between procrastination, delay of gratification, and job satisfaction among high school teachers. Japanese Psychological Research, 56(3), 224-234. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpr.12046
[4] Moss, S. (2011). Temporal discounting - Psychlopedia - psych-it.com.au. Web.archive.org. Retrieved 28 August 2021, from https://web.archive.org/web/20130622003602/http://www.psych-it.com.au/Psychlopedia/article.asp?id=427.
[5] Köpetz, C., Briskin, J., Sultana, R., & Stanciu, S. (2021). The motivational factors underlying delay discounting. Motivation Science, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000196
[6] Cherry, K. (2020). Delayed Gratification and Impulse Control. Verywell Mind. Retrieved 28 August 2021, from https://www.verywellmind.com/delayed-gratification-why-wait-for-what-you-want-2795429#trust-is-acritical-factor.
[7] Miller, K. (2021). What is Delayed Gratification and How to Pass the Marshmallow Test?. PositivePsychology.com. Retrieved 28 August 2021, from https://positivepsychology.com/delayed-gratification/.
[8] Calarco, J. (2018). Why Rich Kids Are So Good at the Marshmallow Test. The Atlantic. Retrieved 28 August 2021, from https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/marshmallow-test/561779/.
[9] Resnick, B. (2018). The "marshmallow test" said patience was a key to success. A new replication tells us s’more.. Vox. Retrieved 28 August 2021, from https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/6/6/17413000/marshmallow-test-replication-mischel-psychology.
[10] McKibben, B. (2020). Thanksgiving, the Coronavirus, and the Marshmallow Test. The New Yorker. Retrieved 28 August 2021, from https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/thanksgiving-the-coronavirus-and-the-marshmallow-test.
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