In the 1960s, psychologists at Stanford University conducted a classic experiment on children's self-control - the famous marshmallow experiment. The experimental method is to bring a kindergarten child to a house with a table and a chair. The researchers first asked the children to sit on a chair, and then asked them to pick a snack from the table, which could be marshmallows, cookies, or crackers. Assume that what this child likes now is marshmallows, then he has two choices. One option is that he can eat the marshmallow now. Another option is that he can wait for the researcher to go out for a while, usually 15 minutes, and then when the researcher comes back, if he does not eat the marshmallow in front of him, he can get another marshmallow, which is two marshmallows. sugar. If the child is tired of waiting, he can also choose to give up. Then he will immediately get the marshmallow in front of him, but he will also give up the opportunity to get the second marshmallow.

The marshmallow experiment is a classic experiment about the delayed gratification paradigm. In the marshmallow experiment, there was a significant correlation between the length of time a child waited and the score he obtained when he took the "American College Entrance Examination" SAT test when he grew up. Not just in the United States, this experiment has been conducted in many countries around the world, and the results are very similar. This experiment attracted widespread attention and overturned the previous view proposed by psychologists that IQ can predict a person's success. Self-control replaced intelligence as an important factor in determining a person's success.

See "Perseverance: Unleashing the Power of Passion and Persistence"