This has been a fun thing to watch for years now. It’s something I do with the young people I work with, and with my own children. Basically: would you like one sweet now…or two later? And now we seem to have some evidence that those who say ‘later’ as children may well be arming themselves for the future and reducing chances of ‘addictive’ (to use the article’s word) behaviours. The article says:
‘The results showed that the brain’s prefrontal cortex was more active for high delayers and the ventral striatum — an area linked to addictions — was more active in low delayers.’
The research is interesting. And what it might mean for youthwork is also interesting.