together to create a single composite
self-control score, often combining
traits assessed across multiple years.
This approach makes it hard to
identify the “active ingredients” that
are linked with the outcome of
interest, a crucial step if you plan to
develop targeted intervention pro-
grams designed to improve life
outcomes by promoting “good” traits
and reducing “bad” ones.
Focusing on specific observable
behaviors might lead to more reliable
and useful predictors of future life
outcomes. Experimental studies
show that home- and school-based
programs can reduce inattentive and
disruptive behaviors and enhance
prosocial traits through perspective-
taking, relationship management, and
social and emotional training. Also,
they are readily observable and easy
to measure in the classroom.
My and my colleagues’ new study
was based on analysis of nearly
3,000 children living in Canada, who
were rated by teachers for behaviors,
including inattention, hyperactivity,
aggression, opposition, anxiety and
prosocial traits, when they were in
kindergarten. The children were then
followed up for 30 years, and the
behavioral ratings were linked to
their tax-return records in adulthood.
For boys and girls, ratings of inatten-
tion at age six were more strongly
linked with lower future earnings
than any other behavior. Furthermore,
for boys only, ratings of aggression
and opposition were linked with
lower earnings, and prosocial
behaviors were linked with higher
earnings. The study accounted for
other childhood behaviors, including
hyperactivity and anxiety, which were
not associated with earnings.
This study raises the question of
what underlying factors might
mediate—or explain—the association
between childhood behavior and
future life earnings. Low educational
attainment and antisocial behavior
may be particularly important.
Inattention in childhood is known
to be linked with poor peer relations,
substance abuse and antisocial
behavior in adolescence, all of which
can harm educational attainment and
diminish employment opportunities,
consequently lowering earnings.
Similarly, childhood aggression and
opposition are linked with substance
dependence, antisocial behavior and
criminal convictions, which could
undermine educational and employ-
ment opportunities and lead to lowerearnings. The association between
boys’ prosocial behaviors and higher
earnings may be more intuitive:
prosocial children typically get on
better with their peers, have fewer
behavioral problems in adolescence
and perform better at school, which
should enhance employment oppor-
tunities, collegial relations and,
consequently, earnings.
The next step is to figure out which
of these mediating pathways are
most important in explaining the link
between childhood behavior and
poor economic outcomes in adult-
hood so they can be tested in
intervention programs. Another
important question, which wasn’t
addressed in our study, is why the
behaviors associated with future
earnings appear to differ for males
and females. The answer may, in turn,
suggest different interventions.
While the ability to wait for a
couple of marshmallows may not
predict life success, other traits do
seem to matter. Where earnings are
concerned, kindergartners’ ability to
pay attention—and boys’ ability to be
kind—appear particularly important.
Fortunately, there are many good
reasons to promote these traits.
—Francis VergunstScientists
Demonstrate Direct
Brain-to-Brain
Communication
in Humans
Work on an “Internet of brains”
takes another stepWe humans have evolved a rich
repertoire of communication, from
gesture to sophisticated languages.
All of these forms of communication
link otherwise separate individuals in
such a way that they can share and
express their singular experiences
and work together collaboratively. In
a new study, technology replaces
language as a means of communi-
cating by directly linking the activity
of human brains. Electrical activity
from the brains of a pair of human
subjects was transmitted to the brain
of a third individual in the form of
magnetic signals, which conveyed an
instruction to perform a task in a
particular manner. This study opens
the door to extraordinary new means
of human collaboration while, at the
same time, blurring fundamentalNEWS