Hurray, the Marshmallow Test is bllx!

Addiction Economy Thought for Today - Hurray, the Marshmallow Test is bllx!

You may be aware of this, but I wasn't until now.

And I am very glad. It always seemed to me to be ridiculous that this one small basic metric, impulse control, measured in a lab, was given so much credence in predicting something so important as success in life. Whether they liked marshmallows, environment, people, circumstances, context are so much more complex than this on small test at this incredibly early stage.

A review said: "We found virtually no correlation between performance on the marshmallow test and a host of adolescent behavioural outcomes. I thought that this was the most surprising finding of the paper”

Reported here in the Guardian

Famed impulse control test fails in new research

A different review here. But they are making it all about 'will power' which is also wrong.

The Marshmallow Test was debunked - here’s why that matters

In Ultra Processed People Chris van Tulleken shows from follow on studies, (including by the original author, on a variety of sweets) that people's weight gain, and the marshmallow test, is not about willpower, it is much more complex and may also be correlated with socio-economic background and success more complex. (Who knew!)

Either way - "Children who quickly gave in...are generally no more or less financially secure, educated of physically healthy."

If you got this far (!) the connection with addiction is this: There is lots of conflicting and junk science about addiction too. It is not simplistic as it appears in many narrowly focused scientific journals, in the media and in many of our heads. And me and Joe have an awful lot of work to do!