9jY_LpSH-w0.srt

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So here's a cool psychological study,
so it's called the marshmallow test and 

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maybe it's even a reliable study.
Even though it was done by social 

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psychologists,
it's probably replicable and it's a nice

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study.
So you take small children and you bring

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them into a room and you put something 
that they would like in front of them,

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a marshmallow and you then you torture 
them.

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Basically you say,
see that marshmallow in the kid thinks,

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man,
I see that marshmallow.

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It's like you can have that marshmallow 
right now or if you wait,

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I think the experiment is 10 minutes.
Then you can have two marshmallows.

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And so that puts the child in quite a 
conundrum because they're being asked to

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trade in actual concrete,
tangible marshmallow for two 

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hypothetical future marshmallows and 
it's not that easy to conjure up a 

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hypothetical future reality that has the
same tangible significance as something 

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real right in front of you.

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And so it's amazing thing that people 
can do that.

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And so then the experimenter leaves and 
some children's grabbed the marshmallow 

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and just chomp that thing down right 
now.

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Other kids,
they videotaped kids while they're 

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waiting and they do all sorts of things.
They whistled,

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they look at the ceiling,
they sit on their hands,

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you know,
they tried to distract themselves.

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Course they're eyeing that marshmallow 
like a squirrel lying and not and and 

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trying to restrain themselves and you 
know what I see in that is that the 

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child's prefrontal Cortex,
the higher cortical systems are warring 

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with the underlying motivational 
systems,

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more primordial motivational systems 
that govern such things as hunger.

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The hunger system,
hypothalamic system says there's 

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something sweet and fat right?
Sitting there,

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right bloody now grab that thing and 
stuff it down now,

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and I'm sure many of you have a constant
battle with your hypothalamus with 

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regards to sweet and fat things and 
often lose so you can feel some sympathy

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for the child,
but the hypothalamus has these 

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tremendously powerful tendrils upward 
into the brain,

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into the parts that we would associate 
more with voluntary control and the 

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voluntary control centers have these 
little weak ribbons going down to 

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control the hypothalamus.

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Since it's pretty obvious,
if you know something about 

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neuroanatomy,
what part is actually in charge when the

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chips are down,
and it's not easy for children to learn 

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to regulate those underlying primordial 
impulses,

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the ones that are wired in,
the ones that we share with animals,

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but they do it and and,
and the cool thing is,

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this is what Walter Michelle found.
He's the guy who did the study,

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was that the longterm outcome for the 
children who can delay gratification in 

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the marshmallow test is much more 
positive than it is for the children 

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that are impulsive and eat the 
marshmallow instantly.

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It's delay of gratification.
Now it's likely that that's associated 

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with trait conscientiousness,
although that specifically has that 

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specific connection has not yet been 
established,

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but they seem conceptually very,
very similar.

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So.
So anyways,

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this emerges in children probably 
between the ages of two and four,

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something like that.

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They should have it in place by four 
because it's very difficult for them to 

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really interact well with other children
without having that delay of 

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gratification in place.
Because if you can't delay 

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gratification,
other kids don't like you because 

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you're.
You want everything your way and you 

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want it now and you're.
You're liable to temper tantrums and 

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that sort of thing.
You haven't got the kind of self control

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necessary to make you fun to play with 
so you can see that emerging in children

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and it's pretty.
It's pretty interesting and not only 

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that,
if it emerges,

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it predicts positive longterm outcomes 
just like trait conscientiousness does 

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by the way,
because trait conscientiousness is the 

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second best predictor of longterm 
success over the lifespan.

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In Western cultures,
it's second after intelligence and so in

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our societies,
the people who do best across time are 

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the people who have high Iq is and who 
work hard and I would say that's a 

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pretty decent,
what would you call it?

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It's a validation in some sense that our
cultures are working properly because 

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what you would want,
I would say if the system is working 

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meritocratic Lee like it should,
and if you're trying to extract 

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resources from those who can contribute 
at a higher rate than what you would 

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want to have happen is that the hard 
working smart people do better.

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Hopefully.
If that's the case,

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then everyone does better.
Hopefully.