Prof. Matthew Lieberman presented work on the brain’s braking system in the NeuroLeadership Journal Issue Two 2009.  Prof.Lieberman presented a study by Prof. Michael Mischel, often referred to as the ‘Marshmallow Study’ (Mischel and Ebbeson, 1970).  

Mischel’s study involved four-year-olds who were presented with a marshmallow and then told if they could resist eating it for fifteen minutes they would earn a second marshmallow.

This study took on new significance when those same children were studied years later, the resisters were more successful on the basis of virtually every objective measure (including job and family satisfaction, income, education success, even SAT scores) while those unable to resist were found to be more troubled, stubborn and indecisive, mistrustful, and less self-confident.

Prof. Lieberman asserts that those children who were able to resist eating the marshmallow did so by putting the marshmallow ‘into a frame,’ thereby removing or controlling their emotional desire to eat it.

Studies expanding upon the Mischel study have not found a relationship between the ability to resist and IQ, but have instead found a relationship with decision making competency.

It is interesting to speculate the role neuroscience might play in the development of, a ‘Rationality Quotient’ or ‘RQ" assessment instrument (to assist in defining an individual’s ‘Rational Intelligence’) and then in the development of how such an instrument might be used in the selection of managers or leaders.

Marshmallow anyone?