Delayed gratification is the ability to resist the temptation of instant satisfaction and hold out for the longer-term reward. Studies show that delayed gratification is one of the most effective traits of successful people. People who are able to sacrifice pleasure in the moment thrive more in their careers, relationships, health, and finances than people who give in to it.
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Being able to delay satisfaction obviously isn't easy. It involves feeling dissatisfied, sometimes even pain. A famous study conducted at Stanford University in the 1960s put children in a room with one marshmallow on a plate. The researchers gave the children this instruction: You can eat the marshmallow now or wait 15 minutes and the reward will be two marshmallows. Videos of this classic experiment results in some entertaining and cute viewing. The research suggested that delayed gratification had huge benefits like higher scores on standardised tests and better health.
Interestingly, new replication studies have shown that social and economic background shapes the ability to delay gratification - and these are the factors behind a child's long-term success. For kids who have more certainty in their resources it is easier to delay gratification. It's not that skills such as delaying gratification and persistence aren't an important life skill, but it's worth considering the context in which a child lives. The ability to make a 'rational choice' may differ depending on whether a child is in a reliable environment. These findings suggest that our efforts to embed skills such as delayed gratification, and related concepts like grit and resilience, would be best balanced with attention to reducing inequalities and fostering reliable environments to improve the educational attainment and wellbeing of our kids.
