今天分享演讲家、作家 Joachim de Posada 在 TED 全球会议的一个5分钟演讲。他与大家分享了一个关于「延迟满足」(delayed gratification)的棉花糖试验。实验中的小朋友才4岁，但已经懂得人生最重要的原则，那就是「延迟满足」。Joachim 认为：成功最重要的因素是自律对自己严格自律的人，通常在未来获得的成就更大。因为这类人很清楚自己要什么，不要什么。不会因为诱惑或松懈而丢掉自己的原则。
棉花糖实验
The Stanford marshmallow experiment refers to a series of studies on delayed gratification in the late 1960s and early 1970s led by psychologist Walter Mischel then a professor at Stanford University. In these studies, a child was offered a choice between one small reward (sometimes a marshmallow, but often a cookie or a pretzel, etc.) provided immediately or two small rewards if he or she waited until the experimenter returned (after an absence of approximately 15 minutes). In follow-up studies, the researchers found that children who were able to wait longer for the preferred rewards tended to have better life outcomes, as measured by SAT scores, educational attainment, body mass index (BMI)[4] and other life measures. However, recent work calls into question whether self-control, as opposed to strategic reasoning, determines children’s behavior.
I’m here because I have a very important message: I think we have found the most important factor for success. And it was found close to here, Stanford.
我今天来这里是要传递一个非常重要的信息。我认为我们已经发现了走向成功最重要的因素。而这一成果就是在离这不远的斯坦福大学里发现的。
Psychology professor took kids that were four years old and put them in a room all by themselves. And he would tell the child, a four-year-old kid, “Johnny, I am going to leave you here with a marshmallow for 15 minutes. If, after I come back, this marshmallow is here, you will get another one. So you will have two.” To tell a four-year-old kid to wait 15 minutes for something that they like, is equivalent to telling us, “We’ll bring you coffee in two hours.” (Laughter) Exact equivalent.
心理学教授找来一些四岁大的幼童把孩子自己留在一个房间里。然后他告诉四岁的孩子， “强尼，我要给你一颗棉花糖， 给你十五分钟。如果我回来的时候这颗棉花糖还在这儿，你会再得到一颗。这样你就有两颗了。” 告诉一个四岁的小孩要等十五分钟才能享受他所喜欢的东西， 就如同告诉我们大人，“我们两小时后会给你送咖啡来。” 这是完全一样的事。
So what happened when the professor left the room? As soon as the door closed… two out of three ate the marshmallow. Five seconds, 10 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, two minutes, four minutes, eight minutes. Some lasted 14-and-a-half minutes.
那么当教授离开后，房间里发生了什么事呢？ 门关上之后… 三分之二的小孩把棉花糖吃了。五秒、十秒、四十秒、五十秒、两分钟、四分钟、八分钟。有些孩子坚持了十四分半。
Couldn’t do it. Could not wait. What’s interesting is that one out of three would look at the marshmallow and go like this … Would look at it. Put it back.They would walk around. They would play with their skirts and pants.
沒办法不吃，等不了。有趣的是，有三分之一的小孩看着棉花糖，像这个样子… 盯着它。将它放回去。他们会走来走去。他们会玩他们的裙子或裤子。
That child already, at four, understood the most important principle for success, which is the ability to delay gratification. Self-discipline: the most important factor for success. 15 years later, 14 or 15 years later, follow-up study. What did they find?
这个孩子，尽管才四岁，就已经懂得 成功最重要的原则。这就是「推迟享受」的能力。自律，成功最重要的因素。十五年后，十四到十五年后，再做后续研究。他们发现了什么呢？
They went to look for these kids who were now 18 and 19. And they found that 100 percent of the children that had not eaten the marshmallow were successful. They had good grades. They were doing wonderful. They were happy. They had their plans. They had good relationships with the teachers, students. They were doing fine.
研究人员找到这些已经是十八、十九岁的小孩们。他们发现百分之百沒有吃棉花糖的小孩全部都很成功，他们学习成绩很好，人生发展得非常好，他们都很快乐，对未来都有自己的规划，他们和老师同学关系都很好，他们都生活得很好。
A great percentage of the kids that ate the marshmallow, they were in trouble. They did not make it to university. They had bad grades. Some of them dropped out. A few were still there with bad grades. A few had good grades.
而吃了棉花糖的小孩中有很大一部份，都有些问题。他们沒考上大学。成绩不佳，有些缀学了。另外一些虽然还在念书，但成绩很差。只有少数人成绩不错。
I had a question in my mind: Would Hispanic kids react the same way as the American kids? So I went to Colombia. And I reproduced the experiment. And it was very funny. I used four, five and six years old kids. And let me show you what happened.
我当时有一个想法：西班牙语系国家的儿童跟美国儿童的反应会是相同的吗？所以我到哥伦比亚去了。我重复了这个试验。结果非常有意思。我找了四、五、六岁年龄不等的孩子。现在我给你们看看当时的情况。
So what happened in Colombia? Hispanic kids, two out of three ate the marshmallow; one out of three did not. This little girl was interesting; she ate the inside of the marshmallow. In other words, she wanted us to think that she had not eaten it, so she would get two.
那么在哥伦比亚发生了什么呢？ 这些小孩，三分之二吃了棉花糖。三分之一沒有吃。这个小女孩非常有趣。她把棉花糖的芯吃了。 也就是说，她希望我们以为她沒有吃，这样她就可以得到两颗。
But she ate it. So we know she’ll be successful. But we have to watch her. She should not go into banking, for example, or work at a cash register. But she will be successful.
但她确实吃了。所以我们知道她将会成功，但是必须有人监督她。比如说，她不应该去银行业上班，或者做收银员工作。但是她将会成功。
And this applies for everything. Even in sales. The sales person that — the customer says, “I want that.” And the person says, “Okay, here you are.” That person ate the marshmallow. If the sales person says, “Wait a second. Let me ask you a few questions to see if this is a good choice.” Then you sell a lot more.So this has applications in all walks of life.
这能应用到很多事情上，甚至在销售上。比如一个推销员— 当客户說，“我要那个。”这个推销员就说，“好的，给你。” 这个推销员当初一定吃了棉花糖。如果这个推销员说，“请等一下， 让我问您一些问题，看看这是不是个好的选择。” 那样就可以卖更多的东西。所以这能应用在生活的各个方面。
I end with — the Koreans did this. You know what? This is so good that we want a marshmallow book for children. We did one for children. And now it is all over Korea. They are teaching these kids exactly this principle.
我现在收尾—讲讲韩国人的做法。你们猜怎么着？这个试验太好了，我们想要一本有关棉花糖的儿童书，我们就为儿童出了一本书。现在这本书风靡全韩国，韩国人教给孩子们的就是这个道理。
And we need to learn that principle here in the States, because we have a big debt. We are eating more marshmallows than we are producing. Thank you so much.
在美国我们也需要懂得这个道理。因为我们欠了一屁股的债。我们吃的棉花糖要比我们生产的多。非常感谢大家。
转载：https://blog.csdn.net/dataiyangu/article/details/101009972