Are you familiar with the famous Stanford “Marshmallow Experiment”? During the 1960s and ‘70s, Stanford psychologists conducted a marshmallow test with about 90 children enrolled in a local Stanford preschool.

They tested whether children could restrain themselves from eating a first marshmallow when they knew that they would receive a second one if they held out. Supposedly, they found a correlation between an ability to delay gratification and later success in life.

What they failed to control was a difference in social and economic backgrounds. More recent research has found that:

“Those who hold out for the second marshmallow may come from more affluent households, and their future success is based on this economic advantage rather than sheer willpower.”

The children who were quicker to eat that first marshmallow have learned, unfortunately, that there are no guarantees of food tomorrow. Eat what you have right now. If you wait, you may go hungry later.

This is not to say that willpo…