Delayed Gratification

In our Psychology of Learning class, we talked about rewards. Rewards are anything that can make a person happy, like food or money or whatever. And as you could imagine, rewards are used to encourage certain behaviors, like studying or exercise or whatever. More specifically, we talked about the difference in getting a smaller reward sooner and a larger reward later.

More often than not, the larger reward definitely is worth more than the smaller reward. Obvious, isn't it? But, more often than not, people take the smaller sooner reward over the later larger reward. Why? Because it's there. Getting something right now is easier and more certain than getting something later. This piece of candy, for example, is here right now but the 5 pieces of candy promised to you tomorrow might not be there. If you look closely, this behavior is counter-intuitive. Why would people settle for less when they can strive for more?

So the dilemma now is, do you get the smaller sooner reward or the later larger reward? Ask yourself this: Is your will strong enough? Are you in total control of your instincts? Be a real human, and overcome yourself. Think. What's worth more?