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   myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Saturday, 13-May-2023 03:44:56 JST myrmepropagandist

   A particularly annoying weird conservative professor in the philosophy department at the college I went to was very proud of this marshmallow he kept on a shelf in his office. He was obsessed with research related to how well kids do on “the marshmallow test” as a predictor of monetary success in life. (the correlation is real; what it means? a whole other story.) I think about how stale that marshmallow must be after all those years- I wonder if he ever ate it? Did it turn to dust in his mouth?

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     Jeremy Kahn (trochee@dair-community.social)'s status on Saturday, 13-May-2023 03:44:50 JST Jeremy Kahn

     in reply to

     • Bill's in the shop for repairs

     @wcbdata @futurebird I'm also willing to believe the results but draw nearly opposite conclusions:

     Food security in childhood — and the trustworthiness of adult food promises to you — are strongly correlated with intergenerational privilege

     which *also* correlates (causally!) w lifetime earnings

     If you grew up aware that caregivers might not be *able* to keep food promises, the test is harder, even if you trust the caregivers equally

     Kids are rational risk assessors

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     Bill's in the shop for repairs (wcbdata@vis.social)'s status on Saturday, 13-May-2023 03:44:51 JST Bill's in the shop for repairs

     in reply to

     @futurebird Yeah, it got a lot of press, but hasn't stood up. My deep inclination to be cynical makes me suspect a degree of data manipulation in the original research (though quite probably not deliberate - we are all easily fooled by our own preconceptions)

     Paul Cantrell repeated this.
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     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Saturday, 13-May-2023 03:44:53 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     • Bill's in the shop for repairs

     @wcbdata weird I thought the original experiment at least worked.

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     Bill's in the shop for repairs (wcbdata@vis.social)'s status on Saturday, 13-May-2023 03:44:54 JST Bill's in the shop for repairs

     in reply to

     @futurebird As it turned out, the marshmallow test research wasn't reproducible. They tried a few times over the last decade or two (here's one article: https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/6/6/17413000/marshmallow-test-replication-mischel-psychology)

     It did prove, however, that some people are just all too eager to seize upon findings that reinforce their preexisting beliefs and become "conservatives" who refuse to change in the face of contrary evidence.