Marshmallow Test's Newest Surprise: Kids Have More Self Control Today Than In The '60s

The folks who brought us the marshmallow test have some unlikely news: children today have more self-control than ever. That conclusion is based on more than 50 years of results from the iconic test, which allows a preschooler to eat one treat immediately or two if she can wait 10 minutes. The effort at delayed gratification is vastly funny but the results were found to have serious implications for children's future success. Led by psychologist Walter Mischel, who created the experiment -- one of the most famous in developmental psychology -- a research team found that children tested between 2002-2012 held out for two minutes longer on average than the original test-takers in the 1960s, and one minute longer than participants in the 1980s. A 4-year-old in the earliest group waited as long as a child between 2 ½ and 3 in the most recent tests, and 4-year-old test-takers in the 1980s waited as long as a child who was 3 ½ in the 2000s.