The researcher struck the deal, then left. What happened
next was fascinating. Some kids gobbled down the marshmallow
even before the researcher stood up to leave. They weren’t able to
delay their gratification, even though it meant that they wouldn’t
get a second treat. The other kids waited, realizing that if they could
just hold off on what they wanted for a short amount of time, they
would be rewarded. In order to delay gratification, they did every-
thing they could to distract themselves. Their distraction behaviors
ran the gamut from hilarious to ingenious to nearly too painful to
watch. They sang songs, closed their eyes, and even pretended to
eat the marshmallow. One of them sniffed the marshmallow so
frantically that she started to hyperventilate. Some found other
creative ways to deal with the frustration of not getting what they
wanted immediately.
The researchers followed up with the kids years later and
discovered some important differences between the two groups.
The children who had been able to delay gratification were better
off in all sorts of ways. For example, they had better academic
outcomes and were less likely to have problems with drug
addiction.
Delay of gratification is a nifty skill that comes in handy
more than you might think. If you are able to delay gratification,
then it’s easier to tolerate frustration, save money, not yell when
you are angry, and resist temptation. If you aren’t able to delay
gratification, then it’s harder not to give in to the things you desire,
despite the positive or negative consequences of waiting.
This ability to delay gratification is a lot like disinhibition.
People who score high on the sensation-seeking scale of disinhibi-
tion have trouble holding back. If they want to do something, they
do it. If you are able to delay gratification, it means that you have
the ability to control yourself at least some of the time, and delay
gratification in the face of temptation, especially when you aren’t
being watched.
You may have noticed over the course of this chapter that
many of the problematic behaviors HSSs end up engaging in are
associated with disinhibition and boredom susceptibility. Thrill-
and adventure-seeking and experience-seeking can play a role as
well, but based on the research, they seem less likely to drive the
HSS to the dark side. Michelle’s experiment gives us an important
clue as to why. If you can’t delay gratification, if disinhibition and
boredom susceptibility drive you to take more risks, indulge in155 / The Dark Side of High Sensation-SeekingDownloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:20:10, subject to the Cambridge