The gist of it is that 4 year olds were subjected to an experiment where they were offered a treat (cookie, marshmallow, etc.). The researcher told the child that he/she was going to leave the room, but if the treat was still there when the researcher returned, the child could have two of the treat. This was a basic test for delaying gratification. For various reasons, the researchers followed up with the test subjects much later in life and found that the kids’ ability to delay gratification hadn’t changed much over the years. Furthermore, the ones who had been able to resist the treat until the researcher returned were much more successful in life overall (higher achievement, higher SAT scores, etc.) This suggests that will power is established early on, important to a variety of life’s challenges, and, in my opinion, may well be inborn.
