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The original marshmallow experiment is so popular to cite because it is a "just so story" -- that is, as typically explained, it presents a moral lesson that seems intuitively obvious. That's one reason the result stood for so long without attempts to reproduce it.
Such attempts have now been made, and no one can reproduce the reported clarity of the original. One interpretation of this is related to the wealth of the families involved: the original subjects were, after all, children of Stanford University students, and as such came from families of relative wealth.
There are studies which reach the conclusion you're reporting (likely popularized by this Atlantic article but it's paywalled so I can't check), but the way you present this as a "fun fact" is turning the test into a different "just so story".
The reality is that, while there are some stats gathered from the marshmallow test and followups that could be interpreted that way, the actual data gathered is too messy and inconclusive to draw any definitive conclusions.
I got it from You Are Not So Smart, but yes — same study.
I take your point, but I’ll offer a couple other things to consider:
All social science findings are, to at least some degree, propaganda^1^. Everything about them is steeped in social influence, and they only make sense in context of a given society.
That’s why I think the socio-economic finding is actually more true than the delayed gratification finding. It broadens the scope of the considered influences, beyond the individual.
—
^1^ I say this with respect. Because here I am, doing propaganda. Seriously. I don’t like how our society acts like individuals have immutable traits and the world sorts them fairly according to their evaluated worth. Meritocracy is a joke, and we’d all be better off to consider material conditions and moral luck.