The marshmallow test has entered into folklore after it showed how our ability to resist temptation as a child feeds through into all manner of health and success measures later in life. Research from the University of Colorado at Boulder suggests that our cultural upbringing plays a big role in whether we’re willing to wait or not.

The researchers found that children in Japan were willing to wait around three times longer for food than they would for gifts. When children in the United States were tested, they would wait four times longer for gifts than for food.

“We found that the ability to delay gratification, which predicts many important life outcomes, is not just about variations in genes or brain development but also about habits supported by culture,” the researchers explain.

Nurturing good habits

The findings suggest that parents should be able to develop good habits in young children that will support them later in life and allow them to delay gratification. They do, however, call into question previous social science research that suggested children lacked self-control, when in reality they may just have had different cultural values around waiting.

“It calls into question: How much of our scientific conclusions are shaped by the cultural lens we, as researchers, bring to our work?” the authors continue. “This suggests that the way you grow up, the social conventions you are raised around and how much you pay attention to them, are all important.”

The researchers are at pains to point out that they’re not seeking to debunk the findings from the marshmallow test, especially that our ability to resist immediate temptations is hugely important for success in life. But, they are confident that there are things parents can do to improve the self-control of their children.

“Cultivating habits of waiting for others could be doing much more than supporting politeness,” they conclude. “It could make it easier for kids to succeed in future life situations without having to work so hard.”