The marshmallow experiment and designing for self-control
Andrew Wirtanen / Human FactorsIn the 1960s, Walter Mischel created one of the most famous psychological studies: the marshmallow experiment. In the very first study, a group of four-year-olds were given a marshmallow and told they could have another if they waited 20 minutes before eating the first one. Here’s a fun video of the study being repeated:
Source: Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.
Decision making is mostly a process of the frontal cortex of the brain. Two regions are largely used when a person exhibits self-control: the DLPFC and the vmPFC. When a person is practicing self-control, activity in the DLPFC is increased and it interacts with the vmPFC to eventually make a decision (e.g. to eat a donut vs. an apple). If a health-conscious person chooses a donut, chances are activity in the DLPFC will be low. If a health-conscious person chooses the apple, then DLPFC activity will probably increase. Read more about the research that led to this discovery at Science Daily.
So, what does this mean for designers? Well, we can help people with poor self-control, including children, whose brains have not fully matured. We can make decisions easier for our users by clearly conveying potential benefits and drawbacks of different options. For example, furniture could be labeled with different interests of the buyer (e.g. assembly time, difficulty of assembly, materials used, country of origin). Or, travel itineraries could be organized by different options (e.g. travel time, impact on the environment, number of layovers). Of course, we won’t always be able to do this… Mars, Inc. sure wouldn’t like it if there was a label posted on every Snickers bar that showed healthier options!
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