Hello, I’m Wang Fang, happy to meet you in the cloud again. Today begins with perhaps psychology's most famous study.

In 1972 Walter Mischel published research using a treat irresistible to children, hence its name:the marshmallow experiment.。

Preschoolers sat alone before a plate holding a marshmallow and a cookie. After choosing their favorite, they heard: ‘I will leave. If you wait until I return, you may eat your favorite; if you cannot wait, you may eat only the other.’ They chose betweenan immediate rewardanda larger delayed reward.The child must choose between them.

Some waited longer than others. More meaningfully, follow-up over a decade later found thatchildhood delay of gratification correlated with outcomes such as higher academic achievement, positive self-evaluation, and coping with stress(Shoda, 1990; Ayduk, 2000). The original sample was biased toward middle-class children from a Stanford-area preschool. Yet larger representative studies controlling socioeconomic status still link childhood self-control with adult benefits such as slower bodily and brain aging (Richmond-Rakerd et al., 2021).

These studies revealedthe future benefits of self-control.Someone naturally skilled at self-management—going to the gym after exhaustion or resisting delicious food—likely scores high on the Big Five traitconscientiousness.This is a high score.

Highly conscientious people are disciplined, focused, organized, and impulse-controlled—what we call reliable. They deliberate, decide carefully, dislike wasting time, set plans and goals, motivate themselves, and pursue them steadily. Low scorers are impulsive and weak-willed, vulnerable to addictions because attractive immediate actions outweigh long benefit. An ‘addictive personality’ often means low conscientiousness.

Modern society strongly rewards conscientiousness because we constantly choose between immediate pleasure and lasting well-being. What demands maximum willpower almost every weekday to suppress present pleasure? Workers, answer: work.

Everyone knows work supports family and achievement, yet every month seems to have over thirty days when we do not want it. Who performs best in this conflict? Highly conscientious people.