Delicious LiveJournal Links for 5-4-2009

[andrewducker]

• Deferred gratification
  n the 1960s, a group of four-year olds were given a marshmallow and promised another, only if they could wait 20 minutes before eating the first one. Some children could wait and others could not. The researchers then followed the progress of each child into adolescence, and demonstrated that those with the ability to wait were better adjusted and more dependable (determined via surveys of their parents and teachers), and scored an average of 210 points higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
  (tags: psychology life attention self-improvement)
• Livejournal hosting ads promoting homophobia
  Joy!
  (tags: homophobia livejournal)
• Lithium in water curbs suicide
  Free drugs for all!
  (tags: health suicide depression)

Comments

[chilperic.livejournal.com]

The deferred gratification thing is a plot-element in B.F. Skinner's utopian novel Walden Two, which I seem to remember was first published in 1948. Members of utopia need to be trained from an early age...

[andrewducker]

See also, of course, the opposite in Brave New World, where people are trained to demand instant gratification as a method of keeping them controlled...