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  • The Marshmallow Test

  • Mastering Self-Control
  • By: Walter Mischel
  • Narrated by: Alan Alda
  • Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (916 ratings)
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The Marshmallow Test

By: Walter Mischel
Narrated by: Alan Alda
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Editor reviews

Self-control is a vital skill and in his latest audiobook The Marshmallow Test, world-renown American psychologist and author Walter Mischel, describes exactly how to master it. With an expert narration by award-winning American actor Alan Alda, listeners are taken through the background of why people lack self-control and come to a deeper understanding of just how important it is for a healthy, balanced life. Hear the steps of how to gain this essential skill and apply it to any area of your life – from curing your bad habits to achieving your goals without distraction. Available now from Audible.

Summary

Renowned psychologist Walter Mischel, designer of the famous Marshmallow Test, explains what self-control is and how to master it.

A child is presented with a marshmallow and given a choice: Eat this one now, or wait and enjoy two later. What will she do? And what are the implications for her behavior later in life?

The world's leading expert on self-control, Walter Mischel has proven that the ability to delay gratification is critical for a successful life, predicting higher SAT scores, better social and cognitive functioning, a healthier lifestyle and a greater sense of self-worth. But is willpower prewired, or can it be taught?

In The Marshmallow Test, Mischel explains how self-control can be mastered and applied to challenges in everyday life - from weight control to quitting smoking, overcoming heartbreak, making major decisions, and planning for retirement. With profound implications for the choices we make in parenting, education, public policy and self-care, The Marshmallow Test will change the way you think about who we are and what we can be.

©2014 Walter Mischel (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Excerpts from David G. Myers, “Self-Serving Bias,” in This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking edited by John Brockman (New York: Doubleday, 2012), 37–38. Used with permission. Quotes from George Ramirez are printed with permission. Excerpts from Sesame Street script for episode 4412 are reprinted with permission. “Sesame Workshop”®, “Sesame Street”®, and associated characters, trademarks, and design elements are owned and licensed by Sesame Workshop. © 2014 Sesame Workshop. All Rights Reserved.

What listeners say about The Marshmallow Test

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Fascinating

Like Thinking Fast and Slow, this book examines how the two layers of the brain - system 1 and system 2, or the limbic system and pre-frontal cortex, or as Mishel generally prefers to say, the 'hot' system and the 'cool' one - muddle along together to run our lives for better or worse. Despite discussing largely the same topic, Mishel manages to take a completely fresh view from Kahneman (i.e. practically no direct overlap). Michel is also a more pithy writer, respecting the reader's intelligence, whereas Kahneman tends to be bit longwinded, a bit of an old woman, spelling out his ideas when you've already got the point.

I came across the Marshmallow Test originally in research for my own book about controlling obesity, through the (surprising) finding that the BMI of 40 year olds (in the US) correlated significantly with their ability to defer rewards at age 4, as measured by the Marshmallow Test in the 1960’s. This finding is mentioned, but Mishel ranges far wider - try this:

Brain imaging established that the same areas of the brain lit up when people felt physical pain (in fact, heat on forearm) as when they suffered the pain of emotional rejection (in fact, playing a video game and getting left out by the other two players). So this raised the question, ‘Could you take paracetamol to numb the pain of rejection?' And it turns out (at least under experimental conditions and for video games) that paracetamol does indeed protect people to some extent from emotional upset. (Which may shed some light on why people get addicted to painkillers.)

Mishel offers lots of implications for education, and even explains why people tend to boast so much - I'm always getting sat next self aggrandising idiots at parties - look out for the episode about Jake. The explanation is more subtle than you might guess.

Narration: good and natural, by which I mean totally unobtrusive - it was the voice I would imagine for Walter Mishel, but a professional performer.

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127 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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"I think therefore I can change what I am"

The book goes way beyond what the title and 'byline' indicates. An educational look into the basis of human behaviors. It caused me to take a look at my up bringing and childhood and pin point the causal factors for all of my negative behaviors. It's helped me form new foundations to change my thinking and work ethics as well any destructive behaviors I might have.

This is a cliché but it really is a must read.

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55 people found this helpful

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  • MT
  • 08-02-18

not really a 'self help' book

I thought this book was a 'self help' book about self control, but it is more focused on the actual test itself (going into the minutiae of its set up and kids responses to it). Whilst interesting it's not what I was expecting.

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42 people found this helpful

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A Scientific Study - not a practical listen

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

If you have an interest (in a dry sense) in the subject of willpower then you will enjoy this but I spent the whole book waiting for the aha moment but it never ever came. If you want to get something practical from this then you simply won't. The author has marketed this in such a way that it would seem to appeal to popular consumption but it is simply a thesis; clever perhaps but dry and lacking in any way that the reader can interpret and put into practice.

What could Walter Mischel have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Get to the point.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narrator was fine.

Do you think The Marshmallow Test needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

God no.

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34 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Nothing new here

Lots of academic rambling unfortunately - much more biographical and less practical than the cover or description would have you believe.

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19 people found this helpful

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'Homeric' but not in a good way!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

There's a strange, almost oral tradition-like template that academic writers often seem to use, in which they try to liven up scientific text with mental imagery. This book massively overuses that; and it became too much for me. Expect to have every child, the tray, the texture of the marshmallows, the hardness of the table and so on, endlessly over-explained:

'in walked a 4 year old called Toby; he was lively and cheerful with a bright smile, nut brown hair and a long fringe, wearing a brightly coloured t-shirt. We presented 2 delicious chewy chocolate cookies, on an opaque tray and with a small brass bell. It was myself and my then student; Alan Palmer, who is now a vice-professor of behaviour psychology at Princeton' etc etc.

What three words best describe Alan Alda’s performance?

Calm, measured, clear

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18 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Information Packed!

Excellently written book. The information was not too technical and not overly simplistic. Hard evidence backed up by solid research showed how to use the Power of your mind to gain control of your behaviour and that how you think can really influence how you feel. In particular, the idea about hot and cool systems and the concept of a future self made a quite abstract concept more tangible: loved it!

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13 people found this helpful

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A really facinating book.

A book which challenges the view that nature and not nuture defines who we are and who we become.

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10 people found this helpful

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Difficult to listen to

Hard to concentrate on because it's very monotonous and every sentence spoken is quite long winded. Interesting, but hard work to listen to

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8 people found this helpful

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Every teacher and parent should read this!

I really liked this book. It went into the depths of "the marshmallow test!" It is a must read for teachers and parents.

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6 people found this helpful