Why Willpower Doesn't Predict Your Success

Поділитися
Вставка
  • Опубліковано 19 гру 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ •

  • @braincraft
    @braincraft  6 років тому +75

    Hi!! I'm back! I've had a few weeks off filming a cool series that's going to be release here starting from the middle of November 😅
    But for now... Did anyone else's parents talk to them constantly about instant vs delayed gratification? Or was that just me? Explains a lot.

    • @Gojosaturo890
      @Gojosaturo890 6 років тому +4

      Honestly I think that your channel is one of the bestest ever .True respect for you and your team

    • @Gojosaturo890
      @Gojosaturo890 6 років тому +4

      And can you make a video explaining how social media effects our personality and perspective

    • @gabrielaagra2913
      @gabrielaagra2913 6 років тому +2

      Until I was about 5 years old my dad would give me candy everyday when he got home from work. But I couldn't eat it before dinner, so I had to wait otherwise he wouldn't bring candy the next day. I think it made me a more patient and controlled person in terms of waiting to get what I want.

    • @TristanMorrow
      @TristanMorrow 6 років тому

      What about Angela Duckworth and "grit" -not specifically willpower?

    • @drewdavidson663
      @drewdavidson663 6 років тому

      My mom would just tell me to work a big spit and swallow it.

  • @RFantiniCosta
    @RFantiniCosta 6 років тому +115

    I’ve always hypothesized that the kids that didn’t delay gratification did so because they learned not to trust adults (or people in general), so they didn’t have reason to believe that the promise would be kept.
    Better take my candy here and now before the big guys change their mind and I end up empty handed.

  • @limingxu8648
    @limingxu8648 6 років тому +65

    "Willpower doesn't predict your success..."
    Me: Great! I have no willpower whatsoever.
    "... it's more related to your socioeconomic background"
    Me: @#$%^

    • @CyberSage796
      @CyberSage796 6 років тому

      Lol same here

    • @zblus
      @zblus 6 років тому

      Pff nothing can predict your success other than yourself

  • @Brainstorm69
    @Brainstorm69 6 років тому +90

    I'm glad you are discussing modern replication studies of classical psych knowledge. We all learned this and it's good to clean house like this.

  • @ananyapathak8312
    @ananyapathak8312 6 років тому +121

    But what is willpower?
    .
    .
    .
    *plays vsauce song*

  • @StefanTravis
    @StefanTravis 6 років тому +57

    Marshmallows...Stanford Prison...Milgram...are there _any_ famous psychology experiments which _aren't_ fatally flawed?

    • @Kitsune81
      @Kitsune81 6 років тому +3

      My whole Psychology study feels like 1 big lie... I don't know what to believe anymore lol

    • @somecuriosities
      @somecuriosities 6 років тому +2

      You forgot Roy Baumeister and his will power exhaustion

    • @gardenhead92
      @gardenhead92 6 років тому +3

      A small minority. There are definitely more false positive than true positives in the field of psychology (and the social sciences in general). It's more about getting published rather than finding the truth

    • @Darticus42
      @Darticus42 6 років тому

      Stefan Travis the stroop color/word test maybe? Though many of the uses of that test (e.g. granting insight into unconscious mental associations/emotions and decision making) aren't as well known as simply the difficulty of saying the color of a word describing a different color

    • @ProfessorPolitics
      @ProfessorPolitics 6 років тому +5

      A lot of the really one-off "sexy" findings we learn about in intro to psych haven't held up well. But there's also a lot of relationships that are pretty reliable even if the original article may have overhyped it.

  • @gardenhead92
    @gardenhead92 6 років тому +29

    Hah, I've been delaying gratification my whole life!!
    ... i'm sad

  • @THETRIVIALTHINGS
    @THETRIVIALTHINGS 6 років тому +16

    I've noticed that these types of studies are often old. Which would explain, in part, why they were so flawed. Studies often reflect beliefs and cultural state as well. Plus, many of these studies didn't actually have a reference point, i.e. they thought something was and they set it up and sometimes even modified some aspects of it to prove it right. Psychology is still a fairly new field of study and while it does give us insights into the human psyche, one should still be careful and not religiously believe everything that is said.

  • @Nati
    @Nati 6 років тому +15

    I'm glad to see your 'Bob Dylan' book is so useful

  • @domainofscience
    @domainofscience 6 років тому +13

    I really enjoyed this video. I love how you summarised it and the filming and editing was top notch!

  • @sparshjoshi1719
    @sparshjoshi1719 6 років тому

    BrainCraft is definitely the best UA-cam channel about biology. Well researched, Well written and well performed. Amazing!

  • @deniztaheri6479
    @deniztaheri6479 5 років тому +1

    What if you fed the kids before you did the study to make sure that none of them are hungry? Since hunger is an instinct that is hard to overcome, that would mean that the kids who are well fed would have an advantage over the hungry kids. Again, socioeconomic background is linked to how well fed the children will be anyway, so this would explain the study’s faultiness.

  • @aspiringcloudexpert5127
    @aspiringcloudexpert5127 6 років тому

    Great video, enjoyed it very much as always.

  • @IceMetalPunk
    @IceMetalPunk 6 років тому +1

    So many people believe that success is entirely self-made, and it's a dangerous belief when you totally dismiss external factors beyond peoples' control. If you can convince yourself that "they wouldn't be poor/starving/dying if only they helped themselves more," you can sleep at night without feeling the urge to help others.

  • @lynxlagoon
    @lynxlagoon 6 років тому +5

    i swear if i hear about the marshmallow study one more time

  • @AStrangeTree
    @AStrangeTree 6 років тому +3

    I find people who take responsibility for their actions and what happens to them tend to succeed the most.

  • @indrajithkl664
    @indrajithkl664 6 років тому +4

    Thank you for the awesome video

    • @braincraft
      @braincraft  6 років тому

      Thank you for watching!!

  • @zblus
    @zblus 6 років тому +4

    No it doesn't mean you can eat marshmallows whenever you like. Just because the study doesn't generalize to a variety of social economic backgrounds doesn't mean that you in your own unique situation wouldn't be more successful if you had better willpower

  • @ProfessorPolitics
    @ProfessorPolitics 6 років тому +1

    I'm going to use this to rationalize my eating half a pan of brownies earlier today.

  • @mateuszplinta9903
    @mateuszplinta9903 6 років тому

    Great video! Also, I love your keyboard :D

  • @EDALLSANT
    @EDALLSANT 6 років тому +1

    Love your content!! And your accent, tym

  • @derciobene3458
    @derciobene3458 6 років тому

    I always learn so much from your videos, like, things I would go my entire life without even wondering about.
    Thank you so much for your very informative videos and I hope you well.

  • @Gojosaturo890
    @Gojosaturo890 6 років тому

    I think the most important factor for success is your determination and how comfortable you are in taking responsibility for your actions rather than rooting for excuses

  • @agustinvenegas5238
    @agustinvenegas5238 6 років тому +1

    Hii I haven't seen any of your videos in a while, (sorry, uni is horrible 😂) I had forgotten how fun this videos are!!

  • @BenLewisE
    @BenLewisE 6 років тому

    Love this video! :)

  • @bismyan1019
    @bismyan1019 6 років тому +1

    Oh my ... where did you get that marvellous keyboard of yours?

    • @braincraft
      @braincraft  6 років тому +1

      It’s just a normal keyboard with a editing shortcuts skin over the top. So it’s kind of like an external memory device, because I don’t need to remember all my editing shortcuts 😉

  • @ruskreeder2434
    @ruskreeder2434 6 років тому

    And so the bubble is burst. A similar show was aired on Radiolab, s radio series about all kinds of scientific things, including psychology. You should hunt it down. They work out of New York City, and who knows, you might be able to link up to them and be a or a part-time researcher. They've had many famous guests over the years, including Oliver Sacks, whom unfortunately we lost a couple of years ago. They have an archive of all their shows.
    I enjoyed the music you used. I also enjoyed the way you highlighted your ideas by using the marshmallows, especially placing the research papers in the center of them. And I liked how you brought the video back to where you began--with the marshmallows. That's something you always do and I really like it. By bringing things back full circle, you reinforce the key idea you are tring to communicate.

  • @NickKartha
    @NickKartha 6 років тому

    10% luck, 20% skill,
    15% concentrated power of will,
    5% pleasure, 50% pain ,
    100% reason to subscribe to BrainCraft today!
    #boom

  • @annaathena5764
    @annaathena5764 6 років тому

    This is great news, as I don't have the willpower to quit binge watching Braincraft and stop procrastinating 😂

  • @brukernavn3409
    @brukernavn3409 6 років тому

    1:46 What is "wool power"?

  • @PragmaticOptimist
    @PragmaticOptimist 6 років тому +1

    "Why Willpower Doesn't Predict Your Success", an autobiography (by me).

  • @eddebrock
    @eddebrock 6 років тому +1

    That split second when you think her mom had lolis in the front seat...

  • @shadowsfromolliesgraveyard6577
    @shadowsfromolliesgraveyard6577 6 років тому +1

    So it's only predictive for middle-class kids or it's not predictive when you control for socioeconomic background?

  • @farouq7107
    @farouq7107 6 років тому +22

    Notification Squid 🦑🦑

  • @nathanbinford5715
    @nathanbinford5715 6 років тому

    I scrolled through the comments a bit to see if this was there - hope I'm not duplicating. What is your keyboard all about?
    Really enjoy your videos by the way!

  • @BeCurieUs
    @BeCurieUs 6 років тому +1

    That was one of the most interesting OECD stats I read about income mobility. How more than any other factor in the USA, your parents income is the best predictor of your income. Not exactly the american dream we signed up for.

  • @fredleckie5880
    @fredleckie5880 6 років тому

    Thanks for the Andrea Beaty book suggestions

  • @tomevans9192
    @tomevans9192 6 років тому +1

    I wonder how many kids ate half the marshmallow to try and make it look like they didn’t eat it just had a smaller one

  • @МакарошкиСПюрешкой

    Wow, I recently finished Pelevin's new book, which was exploring this idea from the perspective of rich and successful but unsatisfied people.

  • @gamalkhaled7383
    @gamalkhaled7383 6 років тому +1

    ur videos really help me know more about myself and help me taking decisions
    thank u

    • @braincraft
      @braincraft  6 років тому

      Thank you for watching Gamal!

  • @danjbundrick
    @danjbundrick 6 років тому

    Fascinating, so some confounding factor is influencing both willpower and success? Could it be one of the Big Five?

  • @keplergelotte7207
    @keplergelotte7207 6 років тому +1

    It would be interesting to correralate early delayed gratification with amount saved in retirement accounts.

  • @OLBICHL
    @OLBICHL 5 років тому

    I got so much willpower, it once punched a hole through a wall... so, I have no issues with closed doors that lead to my goal! ;D

  • @themightyavenger1023
    @themightyavenger1023 6 років тому +2

    It certainly helps though 😂

  • @Jackal_Blitz
    @Jackal_Blitz 6 років тому

    I don't think your mum cares about you eating a bouquet of marshmallows; it's the lollies she's concerned with! ;)

  • @luclem.6234
    @luclem.6234 6 років тому

    I feel like the marshmallow test measures trust more than willpower

  • @SnowmansApartment
    @SnowmansApartment 6 років тому +1

    the word Chevron reminds me of Star Gate..

  • @saumitrachakravarty
    @saumitrachakravarty 6 років тому

    I hate marshmallows since as far as I can remember. If I was enrolled in that study, I would probably neither eat the first marshmallow nor the second one that came as a reward after 15 minutes of waiting.

  • @godminnette2
    @godminnette2 6 років тому

    To put it in simple logic terms, A didn't cause B, some other factor C caused both A and B, and focusing on changing A would not necessarily change B.

  • @sarahmedouni8844
    @sarahmedouni8844 5 років тому

    question, isn't it better to limit the variables while preforming these kind of experiments by testing people of the same socioeconomic background? and other stuff like all their moms having college degrees, to isolate the factor of willpower and how it effects their future success. but it is more interesting to me how other factors could have affected their willpower in the first place and how those factors directly influenced their future success.

  • @hitentopia5611
    @hitentopia5611 6 років тому +1

    Success is never predicted

  • @eelexa
    @eelexa 3 роки тому

    A kid could also wait to eat the marshmallow out of a desire to please. Personally I do well at school, and I would have waited to eat the marshmallow based on my desire to meet a suspected requirement. However, I struggle with self control otherwise. It's a flawed test for sure!

  • @Kurisma
    @Kurisma 6 років тому +1

    Damn how I miss Vsauce....Cant wait till i hear the words "Hey, Vsauce Michael Here."

  • @stilcrazychris
    @stilcrazychris 6 років тому

    I hate marshmallows! But I get what your saying here.... lol...
    Chris from Missouri

  • @EditioCastigata
    @EditioCastigata 6 років тому

    If any sweets were sausalicously lying around and I resisted the temptation, I would've observed my sister snagging them. Now if a stranger came and made lofty promises, I would do the math if his promised can be trusted or not, and followed by a risk-analysis based on that earlier experience… Would actually be unreasonable to not save that treat from evil.

  • @Jediben001
    @Jediben001 6 років тому +2

    I really want a marshmallow now

    • @NourSelim0
      @NourSelim0 6 років тому +1

      same, and I don't even like Marshmallows :D

  • @JediNg135
    @JediNg135 6 років тому +2

    You know what is a predictor of success? Your skincare routine :P Love the video

  • @chriswalker7632
    @chriswalker7632 6 років тому

    So that's what the ghostbusters just was about xP - fire at the marshmallow crotch!

  • @ronnielee9
    @ronnielee9 6 років тому

    But is this saying that willpower is affected by enriched environments or is it saying willpower is irrelevant?

  • @phlave
    @phlave 6 років тому

    I missed this channel

  • @latinoheat300
    @latinoheat300 6 років тому

    Replication schplication. Any theoretical future kids of mine will experience delayed gratification. When you recounted what your mother did I thought to myself "ah, a woman aft my own heart".

  • @AshishGupta-ql9lq
    @AshishGupta-ql9lq 6 років тому

    I would have easily resisted the temptation to eat marshmallows
    because I don't like their taste

  • @dustindhull
    @dustindhull 6 років тому

    Does your keyboard resemble the periodic table of elements?

    • @braincraft
      @braincraft  6 років тому

      I WISH! It's just a skin with editing shortcuts!

    • @dustindhull
      @dustindhull 6 років тому

      @@braincraft that's pretty neat.

  • @D.Jay.
    @D.Jay. 6 років тому +7

    *Unless you're Batman.

    • @quen_anito
      @quen_anito 6 років тому +3

      ... or Green Lantern.

    • @SuviTuuliAllan
      @SuviTuuliAllan 6 років тому +1

      Too much money + childhood trauma = Batman, no willpower in that equation

    • @D.Jay.
      @D.Jay. 6 років тому

      @@quen_anito do you associate green lantern with success?

    • @quen_anito
      @quen_anito 6 років тому

      GL's power is directly related to will or willpower. Batman's, on the other hand, is related to intellect.

    • @D.Jay.
      @D.Jay. 6 років тому

      @@quen_anito dude duh, every neckbeard knows the emotions tied to the different light colors and rings corps. The question is not does he have willpower, it's is he successful with it. Which I mean come on. We both know the answer there.
      And yes Bats is smart but it's ability to *will* plot armour and exmachnia gadgets into existence that is his true superpower. aka BECAUSE HE'S BAATMAAAN.

  • @TheGoblinoid
    @TheGoblinoid 6 років тому

    Interesting!

  • @Toastmaster_5000
    @Toastmaster_5000 6 років тому +1

    I don't really agree with the message of this. I agree with the suggestions to set up kids for success and I would agree that your environment and upbringing has a lot to do with your level of willpower (if not, most of that), but the purpose of the original test was to see if your level of willpower has anything to do with your long-term success. So in that regard, you want to eliminate as many un-like variables as possible across all test subjects. So whether you're testing a bunch of kids from a wealthy background or kids from the ghetto, as long as there's consistency in all participants (aside from whether or not they choose to eat the marshmallow) is what matters most in determining the effects on willpower.
    Willpower is an important thing to train. It's not just to do with success, but also your physical and social health. People who act/react based on impulse pick up unhealthy habits, because they opt for the easiest short-term path rather than work hard at a better future.

    • @dropmelon
      @dropmelon 6 років тому

      Peter Schmidt The video didn’t really contradict what you wrote.
      It just shows that the study is fatally flawed and incomplete.
      It didn’t say that we don’t need to practice willpower.

    • @Toastmaster_5000
      @Toastmaster_5000 6 років тому

      But that's my point - the study _isn't_ fatally flawed. I would absolutely agree that it's incomplete, but it definitely isn't flawed.
      The way I see it, the ending summary of the video was basically saying "once you account for different backgrounds and environments, there's no strong correlation to that person's success, so go ahead and give your kid a marshmallow sooner rather than wait" which is specifically what I'm disagreeing with. What we want/need to know is *despite your background/environment,* does willpower have an impact on your overall life. Testing a bunch of people from all sorts of backgrounds will draw no conclusion on that, because there are way too many other factors that could drastically change their life no matter how great or poor their willpower is. It proves something we already know. So, since the original test tested a bunch of upper-class people from the same general area, that helps reduce a lot of the noise. Of course, it isn't a perfect way to prove if willpower is related, but it gives a much clearer answer.
      So all that being said, the best way to know willpower's impact on someone's life is to perform multiple studies of larger groups of people, where the people within each group all come from the same background, but each group is different from the others. So for example, you'd have 1 group of 50 middle-class people who live in suburbs, another group of 50 people with divorced parents, another group of 50 low-income people living in a large apartment complex, a group of 50 people with multiple siblings, and so on. At this point, you eliminate the environment/background variable while getting a complete set of data across a wider populous.

    • @dropmelon
      @dropmelon 6 років тому

      Peter Schmidt What I got from the video is that using marshmallows to train their kids willpower isn’t effective when we accounted the kids’ background and environment.
      It never really implied that we don’t need to train their willpower.
      Then that’s just my take on the video.

    • @Toastmaster_5000
      @Toastmaster_5000 6 років тому

      Your interpretation could be correct, and that is one I would absolutely agree with - treats aren't necessarily a surefire way to train a child's willpower (though I'm sure it helps). However, my interpretation of the study in question isn't so much "can marshmallows help train children's willpower?" but rather "does a child's level of willpower reflect upon their success later in life?" and I would argue that the study did in fact come up with useful data to answer that latter question; it definitely would _not_ answer whether or not sweets can help train willpower.

    • @dropmelon
      @dropmelon 6 років тому

      Peter Schmidt From that perspective, wouldn't the study ended up being a correlation since the study tries to measure the kids' willpower with marshmellows?

  • @ala2hhh170
    @ala2hhh170 6 років тому

    Am I the only one who thinks that there should be a bigger sample and that more factors should be rolled out, also, I think people change when they grow up, so how accurate would it be to judge a person for being impatient based on an experiment during his or her childhood!

  • @MrsMonstargh
    @MrsMonstargh 6 років тому

    On netflix, watch the first episode of Magic for Humans. A magician does the marshmallow test with kids and just messes with their minds with magic. It's hilarious (the rat if the series not so much haha)

  • @Nofxthepirate
    @Nofxthepirate 6 років тому

    Kid of off topic, but I wonder how much trusted research out there is based on correlation and not causation.

  • @quahntasy
    @quahntasy 6 років тому

    But What is will power? ( Dong)
    Hey Vsauce.
    Braincraft here.

  • @Rtong98
    @Rtong98 6 років тому

    Couldn’t it just be how hungry you are? XD

  • @kachnickau
    @kachnickau 6 років тому

    Of course you can have marshmallow any time you want.. But you noneless waited on the end of the video

  • @sent4dc
    @sent4dc 6 років тому

    Two questions:
    1. What happened to all Marshmallows involved in shooting of this video?
    2. Does Bob Dylan realize how you're using his lyrics book?

  • @gardenhead92
    @gardenhead92 6 років тому

    What if certain kids just like marshmallows less than others? Maybe that's the true predictor of success

  • @abdullahcosgun
    @abdullahcosgun 6 років тому +3

    So you say animes are lie?

    • @ProfessorPolitics
      @ProfessorPolitics 6 років тому +2

      Only the ones that don't rely on the power of friendship.

  • @batya7
    @batya7 6 років тому

    It's not willpower that makes us successful; it's WON'Tpower!

  • @MrDarkist
    @MrDarkist 6 років тому

    When you talk I listen

  • @5daboz
    @5daboz 3 роки тому

    S. It is probably because if it would be such a simple one-way prediction, evolution would eliminate everyone but those most patient long ago. Probability for this to be recent benefit that wasn't true a few generations ago is low, so genetics already happened. Instead, evolution usually makes a spectrum with a preference on certain averages and today's average is probably already optimised. Probably :)

  • @shortsquake101
    @shortsquake101 6 років тому +9

    Hi vsauce .. Michel here

    • @NourSelim0
      @NourSelim0 6 років тому +1

      It's "hey vsauce" not "hi vsauce" … have you really watched any vsauce video before? :P

    • @shortsquake101
      @shortsquake101 6 років тому

      @@NourSelim0 LOL .

    • @JoeBob79569
      @JoeBob79569 6 років тому +1

      I've always wondered if he's saying that his name is Vsauce Michael with a pause in the middle. Or is he calling everybody vsauce? Or maybe he's just saying the name of the channel, like: "hey, (name of the channel), Michael here"? The word sauce has lost all meaning for me now..

  • @bigghoss762
    @bigghoss762 6 років тому +1

    100℅ human. No vampire in there.

  • @chitrikart2328
    @chitrikart2328 6 років тому +6

    am i too late to get a heart?

  • @Vercixx
    @Vercixx 6 років тому

    so within the upper middle class kids going to Stanford, the willpower did predict the success. I guess those kids didn't have mothers with college degrees.

  • @ayush8650
    @ayush8650 6 років тому

    What if you just state it only for upper middle class

  • @fatimamezouaghi9780
    @fatimamezouaghi9780 6 років тому +1

    You are beautyful Vanessa👧 😘
    👏from morocco

  • @jazcreations
    @jazcreations 6 років тому

    Damn it now i what a marshmello !

  • @Slattery777
    @Slattery777 6 років тому

    Okay I still liked the video because go braincraft - but doesn't chevron work very hard to keep economically efficient batteries out of cars so they can keep selling their gas?
    I may be misinformed but it seems like a weird sponsor for a science show.

  • @humanoidmodel4217
    @humanoidmodel4217 6 років тому

    Life is not a marshmallow...sadly.

  • @zarkaztick8973
    @zarkaztick8973 6 років тому

    But Naruto stopped Madara and the moon goddess with willpower and effort alone! He certainly didn't have the right environment at all. Ha! Take that psychology!
    Although he had the genes of a red hot habanero in his veins.

  • @laci272
    @laci272 6 років тому

    and it did work in your case:)

  • @dragoncurveenthusiast
    @dragoncurveenthusiast 6 років тому

    Even though you can't predict the children's future, it's still fun to watch them struggling with themselves. This sounds meaner than I meant it to be.
    Just check it out for yourselves. Here is just one example:
    ua-cam.com/video/QX_oy9614HQ/v-deo.html

  • @brianpso
    @brianpso 6 років тому +4

    Before watching the video I'll leave my answer here: Because discipline is what ultimately makes you successful. You can have will power, you can have that initial drive, you can have enthusiasm, you can even have resources, but without discipline you can't do things properly and everything else will fade away when your bad results start to come in.

  • @jnzkngs
    @jnzkngs 6 років тому

    This is further supporting my idea that we should give people a universal basic income in exchange for getting long term birth control that you can only get reversed by a doctor.

  • @alexandrebeaudry8377
    @alexandrebeaudry8377 6 років тому

    I would eat 90% of the marshmallows and argue I did eat A marshmallows to have the other one. It's been proven it work with the Devil Ned Flanders and the donuts

  • @nineball039
    @nineball039 6 років тому

    Bob Dylan lyrics monitor stand?! Heresy!

  • @abercrombiedrive
    @abercrombiedrive 6 років тому

    Bur what about genetics?

  • @paulocoelho558
    @paulocoelho558 6 років тому +1

    I want Vanessa to be my mummy =)

  • @LittleRadicalThinker
    @LittleRadicalThinker 6 років тому

    Let’s just say, money rules all.

  • @qwaqwa1960
    @qwaqwa1960 6 років тому

    What's wrong with your keyboard???

  • @guest_informant
    @guest_informant 6 років тому

    This is just wrong.
    The original test may have "worked" _on those children_ .
    One questions is what were the original conclusions, another is what are reasonable conclusions.
    There is _one_ alternative study whose findings are presented as contradictory, causal, and definitive. This seems like bad science to me.
    If Marshmallows worked in the original Stanford study then what does the fact that it didn't work in the later college degree cohort say?
    Etc etc etc.

  • @doomzday66
    @doomzday66 6 років тому

    #candiesarebasichumanrights