Children are more willing to delay gratification when working with another child to achieve a goal than when working solo, suggests an update of the classic “marshmallow test” published in Psychological Science. Working in both Germany and Kenya, researchers created pairs of more than 200 5- and 6-year-olds, put the children in separate rooms and placed a cookie in from of each of them. In one condition, each child had to rely only on their own self-control to earn a second cookie by waiting until the researcher returned, much like the original experiment. In another condition, each child received a second treat only if both children in the pair waited. In both cultures, more children held off on eating the first cookie in the cooperative condition compared with the solo condition. (Monitor on Psychology)

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