Many of you may be familiar with the famous “marshmallow” experiments conducted by the psychologist Walter Mischel in 1960s and ’70s. In the studies, 4-year-old children have two marshmallows (or another treat) placed in front of them and told that they can either eat one right away or wait to eat two when the researcher returned. Follow-up studies on the participants years later found that those who delayed gratification and waited for the two marshmallows turned out to have higher SAT scores, and were thinner and more socially adjusted.

These studies have joined the collection of psychology research that have become embedded in the collective psyches of our culture as being the incontrovertible truth.

However, new research and a recent article in The New York Times debunks the myth of  the marshmallow as being an early predictor of future success. Both are a good read for two reasons. First, they offer reasonable arguments against the findings (and the mythology) of the marshmallow experiments. Second, they challenge laypeople to closely scrutinize and question the findings of research we read about almost every day that is inevitably distorted and sensationalized.