+
upworthy
More

Researchers just re-created a 50-year-old childhood study with a fascinating twist.

You might have heard of the Stanford prison experiment. But have you heard of the Stanford marshmallow experiment?

The marshmallow experiment was a fascinating study conducted by researchers in the late 1960s and early '70s to test kids' ability to delay gratification.

3- to 5-year-old kids were placed in a room with a marshmallow or other treat in front of them and told that, yes, they could eat it if they wanted. But if they could just wait 15 minutes or so, they could have a second marshmallow or a larger treat.


Dramatization. Photo via iStock.

In the original study, a little less than half of the kids were able to hold out for the bigger reward. Follow-up studies done on these children found that the ability to delay gratification was correlated with better test scores, jobs, and overall success later in life.

Now, 50-some years later, researchers have re-created the famous marshmallow experiment — with one interesting twist.

The new study out of University of Osnabrück in Germany presented a similar test to two separate groups of 4-year-old kids: one group of Westernized children, from Germany, and another group from Cameroon (their people are known as the Nso).

The researchers knew that parenting styles in the two places were vastly different and wanted to see what effect that had on self-regulation and emotions.

What they found surprised them, even though the researchers were already well versed in the cultural differences.

The Nso children were far more able to delay their gratification. Not only that, it seemed to be easy for them.

The German kids performed about as well as the ones in the original 1960s study — in other words, under half of them "passed." On the other hand, about 70% of the Nso children held out for the second treat.

For many of them, it seemed to be no sweat.

Lead researcher Bettina Lamm writes in an email: "In German kids you can virtually see how they fought the temptation, when they were moving around, talking or singing to themselves, playing with parts of their body or even with the sweet. Nso kids just sat there and wait, they do not show much motor activity and hardly show any emotions, and some of them even fell asleep."

Waiting for an extra marshmallow turned out to be a piece of cake.

Cameroonian parenting is known to be more strict than in the Western world. That may help explain the difference, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

"Nso children are required very early to control their emotions, especially negative emotions," Lamm told NPR. "Moms tell their children that they don't expect them to cry and that they really want them to learn to control their emotions."

The Nso kids aren't generally encouraged to make their needs and desires known, she said. They're raised to trust that mom will give them everything they need when they need it.

(This could also be a factor in the study's results: How much do the kids trust that the researcher will actually bring them the second marshmallow?)

Does that mean parents everywhere should start cracking down and getting tough? Not so fast.

"Raising Western children in the Nso manner would not work," Lamm stresses. "Maybe, it would support the development of self-regulation (which we do not know for sure, because of the different environment), but we can be sure that children raised that way in the Western context would lack several competencies that are very important in the Western world (e.g. autonomy and uniqueness)."

If there's a takeaway here for Western parents, it's this: Teaching our kids a little self-control is a great thing, but it's not the only skill that matters in our world.

In other words, it's not the end of the world if your kid just wants to eat the damn marshmallow.

True

Making new friends as an adult is challenging. While people crave meaningful IRL connections, it can be hard to know where to find them. But thanks to one Facebook Group, meeting your new best friends is easier than ever.

Founded in 2018, NYC Brunch Squad brings together hundreds of people who come as strangers and leave as friends through its in-person events.

“Witnessing the transformative impact our community has on the lives of our members is truly remarkable. We provide the essential support and connections needed to thrive amid the city's chaos,” shares Liza Rubin, the group’s founder.

Despite its name, the group doesn’t just do brunch. They also have book clubs, seasonal parties, and picnics, among other activities.

NYC Brunch Squad curates up to 10 monthly events tailored to the specific interests of its members. Liza handles all the details, taking into account different budgets and event sizes – all people have to do is show up.

“We have members who met at our events and became friends and went on to embark on international journeys to celebrate birthdays together. We have had members get married with bridesmaids by their sides who were women they first connected with at our events. We’ve had members decide to live together and become roommates,” Liza says.

Members also bond over their passion for giving back to their community. The group has hosted many impact-driven events, including a “Picnic with Purpose” to create self-care packages for homeless shelters and recently participated in the #SquadSpreadsJoy challenge. Each day, the 100 members participating receive random acts of kindness to complete. They can also share their stories on the group page to earn extra points. The member with the most points at the end wins a free seat at the group's Friendsgiving event.

Keep ReadingShow less
Democracy

This Map Reveals The True Value Of $100 In Each State

Your purchasing power can swing by 30% from state to state.

Image by Tax Foundation.

Map represents the value of 100 dollars.

As the cost of living in large cities continues to rise, more and more people are realizing that the value of a dollar in the United States is a very relative concept. For decades, cost of living indices have sought to address and benchmark the inconsistencies in what money will buy, but they are often so specific as to prevent a holistic picture or the ability to "browse" the data based on geographic location.

The Tax Foundation addressed many of these shortcomings using the most recent (2015) Bureau of Economic Analysis data to provide a familiar map of the United States overlaid with the relative value of what $100 is "worth" in each state. Granted, going state-by-state still introduces a fair amount of "smoothing" into the process — $100 will go farther in Los Angeles than in Fresno, for instance — but it does provide insight into where the value lies.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

Woman bakes cheeky curse word pies for her grandma and it becomes a quirky holiday tradition

2023's pie is an homage to her favorite word to use while stuck in traffic.

Canva

You never know where a holiday tradition will come from.

Tried-and-true holiday traditions certainly have their merit, but there’s something quite special, magical even, about discovering personal rituals that commemorate one’s unique life. In my household, for instance, nothing quite rings in the Christmas spirit like sipping my partner’s delicious coquito and putting up a cardboard gingerbread house for my cats.

The beauty of creating customized holiday traditions is that they can be as festive, sentimental, or as silly as you want them to be. And you never know how one small moment can become the catalyst for a tradition that sparks joy year after year.

For Jess Lydon, that tradition is baking expletive-laden pies for Thanksgiving. (This is your profanity warning—the images below contain swear words.)

Keep ReadingShow less
Education

3,700-year-old Babylonian stone tablet gets translated, changes history

They were doing trigonometry 1500 years before the Greeks.

via UNSW

Dr. Daniel Mansfield and his team at the University of New South Wales in Australia have just made an incredible discovery. While studying a 3,700-year-old tablet from the ancient civilization of Babylon, they found evidence that the Babylonians were doing something astounding: trigonometry!

Most historians have credited the Greeks with creating the study of triangles' sides and angles, but this tablet presents indisputable evidence that the Babylonians were using the technique 1,500 years before the Greeks ever were.

Keep ReadingShow less

Peter Bence's piano cover of "Africa" by Toto

Peter Bence’s performance of “Africa” by Toto has over 17 million views on YouTube because of his creative reimagining of the song and, well, just about everyone loves “Africa.”

Bence is a Hungarian composer and producer who has become a viral sensation for his Michael Jackson, Queen, Sia, and Beatles covers. He has over 1.1 million followers on YouTube and has toured the globe, playing in more than 40 countries across four continents.

His performance of “Africa'' is unique because it opens with him creating a rhythm track and looping it by strategically tapping the piano and rubbing its strings to create the sound of shakers and congo drums.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Family posts a very chill note to neighbors explaining why their dog is on the roof

“We appreciate your concern but please do not knock on our door.."

via Reddit

Meet Huckleberry the dog.

If you were taking a stroll through a quiet neighborhood and happened to catch a glance of this majestic sight, you might bat an eye. You might do a double take. If you were (somewhat understandably) concerned about this surprising roof-dog's welfare, you might even approach the homeowners to tell them, "Uh, I'm not sure if you know...but there's a...dog...on your ROOF."

Well, the family inside is aware that there's often a dog on their roof. It's their pet Golden, Huckleberry, and he just sorta likes it up there.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

12 hilariously relatable comics about life as a new mom.

Embarrassing stains on your T-shirt, sniffing someone's bum to check if they have pooped, the first time having sex post-giving birth — as a new mom, your life turns upside-down.

All illustrations by Ingebritt ter Veld. Reprinted here with permission.

Some good not so good moments with babies.



Embarrassing stains on your T-shirt, sniffing someone's bum to check if they have pooped, the first time having sex post-giving birth — as a new mom, your life turns upside-down.

Illustrator Ingebritt ter Veld and Corinne de Vries, who works for Hippe-Birth Cards, a webshop for birth announcements, had babies shortly after one another.

Keep ReadingShow less