Cultures Crossing: The Power of Habit in Delaying Gratification

Abstract

Resisting immediate temptations in favor of larger later rewards predicts academic success, socioemotional competence, and health. These links with delaying gratification appear from early childhood and have been explained by cognitive and social factors that help override tendencies toward immediate gratification. However, some tendencies may actually promote delaying gratification. We assessed children’s delaying gratification for different rewards across two cultures that differ in customs around waiting. Consistent with our preregistered prediction, results showed that children in Japan ( n = 80) delayed gratification longer for food than for gifts, whereas children in the United States ( n = 58) delayed longer for gifts than for food. This interaction may reflect cultural differences: Waiting to eat is emphasized more in Japan than in the United States, whereas waiting to open gifts is emphasized more in the United States than in Japan. These findings suggest that culturally specific habits support delaying gratification, providing a new way to understand why individuals delay gratification and why this behavior predicts life success.

Diversity and representation in infant research: Barriers and bridges toward a globalized science of infant development

“…For example, in their study of delay of gratification in Japanese and US preschoolers, Yanaoka et al. (2022) used both the traditional marshmallow task in conjunction with the same task with wrapped gifts as prizes instead of the marshmallow. Although Japanese children waited to eat the marshmallow, US children more easily waited to open a wrapped gift.…”

Contingent conversations build more than language: How communicative interactions in toddlerhood relate to preschool executive function skills

“…The child was told that if they waited until the experimenter returned to the room (7 min) they would receive the larger quantity of snack. However, if the child could not wait, they could ring a bell that would bring the experimenter back into the room and the for overlapping heavily with parenting, caregiver availability, household income and child expectation management (e.g., Watts et al, 2018), it remains a widely studied measure of cognitive control (e.g., Conway, 2020;Doebel et al, 2020;Kuhn et al, 2014;Jahromi et al, 2019;Protzko, 2020;Yanaoka et al, 2022) and relates to a range of outcomes across populations, including those implicated in cognitive variance (e.g., Li et al, 2022;de Water et al, 2021;Watts et al, 2018). Whether considered separately or as a core conceptual component of executive function, delay of gratification tasks remain an important predictor involved in inhibitory control and are available in the NICHD SECCYD dataset at the 4.5-year-old timepoint and subsequent timepoints.…”

Exploring the utility of robots as distractors during a delay-of-gratification task in preschool children

“…To what extent this also applies to the values embedded within Indian educational contexts for young children needs to be explored in future research. Other factors to be explored include to what extent DG in preschoolers in India tend to be specific to types of reward used: Yanaoka et al (2022) , for example, found that children in Japan were more likely to show DG for food items than children in the United States, who in turn had longer waiting times for gifts than Japanese children. Eventual success in applying robotic technology in the teaching of DG ultimately depends on the ability to generate higher efficiency than what current approaches can offer.…”