The Phone Experiment

The Stanford marshmallow experiment is a well known psychological test performed on children in the 1960’s and 1970’s that studied delayed gratification. This test was then related to the relative IQ and intelligence of the children experimented on.

The test has children seated in front of a marshmallow and the conductor of the experiment would then tell them the rules which consisted of not eating the marshmallow during the fifteen minute period the conductor would leave the room. If the resisted the urge and had self control child did not eat the marshmallow, and therefore passed the test, they would be given a reward. This test then got linked to the intelligence of the children. The children who did pass the test were considered and proven to be intelligent, and those who did not pass were not considered smart.

The following video a modern rendition on the same test, expect this has teens who have to resist their phones for twenty minutes.

This psychological test further proves the incredibly strong attachment people, specifically teens, have with their phones. Every time each of the teens got a text, it was like a trigger, almost instinctual, to check their phones which they had to try and resist.

This test was not exactly like the marshmallow test considering there was no reward offered at the end but, the test shill showed the large amount of self control and resistance to temptation that was needed in order to pas this test. Twenty minutes is not a large amount of time to be off their phones, but all of the teens used in this social experiment found it difficult. Again, the connection that younger individuals have with their phones is incredibly powerful and could be concerning.