In the marshmallow experiment, 30 percent of the children chose to resist the marshmallow temptation for an entire 15 minutes, at which point they were rewarded with the second marshmallow. The reflective system allows us to consider the future consequences of our choices and factor them into our decision making. For them, the reflective system, driven by reason and logic, was predominant. Some kids in the experiment, however, elected not to eat the marshmallow immediately. While it won’t help you abstain from eating marshmallows, we should thank the automatic system for enabling us to make quick decisions in the face of danger, e.g., jumping away from a moving car. When these kids smelled the marshmallow – i.e., experienced sensory stimulus – they responded with an automatic reaction, grabbing the marshmallow and greedily eating it.Ĭhoices dictated by the automatic system happen so fast that people find themselves acting even before they have an opportunity to consciously consider them. But if you wait until I come back, you can have two.”įor the kids who decided to eat the marshmallow immediately, their automatic system, which subconsciously and continuously analyzes sensory data to produce automatic reactions, was predominant. They told the kids: “You can have one marshmallow right now. To study choice, researchers had children sit at a table with a tasty marshmallow positioned in front of them. However, the reality is far more complicated. How exactly do we make decisions? Most of us would like to think that we weigh alternatives and arrive at rational, well-thought-out conclusions.

The art of choosing book