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<\/a><\/p>\nWalter Mischel tested preschoolers on self-control. In the famous “marshmallow test,” they got either one<\/strong> marshmallow right now<\/em>, or two<\/strong> if they waited for fifteen minutes<\/em>.<\/p>\n (I have to include an adorable video<\/a> of children resisting marshmallows.)<\/p>\n Here’s the blockbuster part: the preschoolers’<\/em> performance on that test predicted<\/a>\u00a0their\u00a0adult performance<\/em> on similar self-control measures — four DECADES later.<\/p>\n And, as Roy Baumeister has shown, self-control influences … say … adult financial success. Or, likelihood of addiction. Or, even the odds that I’ll wind up in jail.<\/p>\n These paragraphs add up to a scary story<\/strong>. If self-control a) can be predicted in early childhood, and b) meaningfully shapes core adult behaviors and abilities, then we might worry about an individual’s capacity to determine his or her life’s direction.<\/p>\n And, we might particularly worry about a teacher’s ability to provide meaningful long-term help.<\/p>\n Ugh.<\/p>\n A recent study sheds new light on this debate<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here’s the headline: Y.E. Willems and others ran a meta-analysis on the heritability<\/em> of self-control. Looking at 31 twin studies that included over 30,000 individuals, they conclude that overall heritabililty of\u00a0self-control is 60%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n But what, precisely, does that mean?<\/p>\n For two reasons, I think this finding defeats the “scary story” I told a few paragraphs ago.<\/p>\n First reason<\/strong>: however you interpret “heritability,” we see that plenty of self-control isn’t<\/em> determined by it. And, if self-control isn’t fully heritable, then the environment can influence it.<\/p>\nBad News\/Good News<\/h2>\n