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DanYHKim t1_iu4kxd6 wrote

In some ways, it only seems like poor judgment from the standpoint of someone who is not poor. My wife and I have worked with distressed families through our church, and one of the things that we observed is that, for their children, there is so much uncertainty in life that they have nothing to lose if a gamble comes up craps.

So what if an action might put their family on the street? They experience evictions and homelessness regularly. They may as well take a chance on something that will bring them something good, because the disastrous consequences of failure are things that happen as a regular feature of their lives.

In addition, their parents often make promises or projections of better things in the future. These promises may be sincere projections and hopes, or they might be total fabrications in order to induce particular behavior. In the end, though, the promises usually come to nothing. A child who has lived with this all their lives might hear the researcher telling them that if they do not touch the marshmallow they will get two later on, but what they know in their heart is that later on there will be no marshmallows. Even the one that they left on the dish might be taken away from them. That is the way life works.

The lives of the poor are very different from the lives of developmental researchers. And the assumptions made by researchers when designing these experiments and interpreting the data maybe entirely inappropriate indie life of a child growing up in poverty.

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AtomicPickles92 t1_iu4viec wrote

There seems to be an increasing gap between what scientists expect/recommend vs what is possible considering the reality of life as we know it.

I am an everyday person, and it’s to the point that I feel like it’s creating a class division.

Like “we recommend breast feeding for the first 2 years of the child’s life. “

Someone who has money could make that happen. Otherwise, there’s no way in hell.

I’d really enjoy it more if researchers realized what kind of life the disadvantaged live. They live such a different life that they are creating tests and data that is completely unattainable for most of the population.

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Masark t1_iu6ge1k wrote

>I am an everyday person, and it’s to the point that I feel like it’s creating a class division.

Friedrich Engels would like to join the conversation.

This is basically a reduced form of social murder. "Social battery", perhaps.

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DanYHKim t1_iu5iwss wrote

This is an important point. Thanks.

I've lived a mostly middle-class life, and were out not for volunteer work I would have no idea about the realities of poverty. It's like a different world.

I'm reminded of "Snowpiercer" sometimes.

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Zippy129 t1_iu5k5v3 wrote

Been feeling this a lot lately. I thought it was maybe just me getting older and more cynical, but a lot of studies these days do seem to suffer from biased, or overall thoughtless experimental design. Even many of the questions as a whole that seem to get funded feel like they lack empathy, or that their answers are obvious or trivial. There’s definitely a dangerous counterculture against science these days that doesn’t need any further feeding, but also scientists don’t seem to be doing their fields a ton of favors.

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dizzymorningdragon t1_iu5opqf wrote

Scientists don't get to choose which research gets grant money. Don't go judging them for trying to make a living too - and if you think researchers are making bank either, you'd be mistaken.

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Zippy129 t1_iu70uk2 wrote

More criticizing their recent work than judging, and I definitely understand that the processes behind funding and grants have more than their fair share of blame here.

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provocative_bear t1_iu6ddw5 wrote

That’s a mindblowing take to me that children eat the marshmallow not because they don’t have discipline, but because these children learned to view the world as cruel and untrustworthy and that actively abandoning long-term thinking is to their advantage. Thanks for sharing, now I’m sad.

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throwwwwwawaaa65 t1_iu72y8s wrote

Mom told me we’d eventually get that Mercedes.

Never did so I don’t trust any one in my life.

Good / bad I worked my ass off to get my own but it’s made me not like my parents because I don’t trust anything they say. Sad but how it goes

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tiny_butt_toucher t1_iu4ykuc wrote

Your comment is so accurate and really important for researchers to consider.

I have worked in public education for twelve years and second all of your observations.

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caucasoidape t1_iu4e6by wrote

It might help if kids aren't snapped at, and punished for every failure, or even for simply being a child.

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Yashema t1_iu4kfak wrote

It might help if poor people werent so underpaid and overstressed they are always ready to snap at a moment's notice.

A big problem in the US is we will divert money for the children, but not for the adults, whereas in say Europe adults have access to lots of social programs, the number one being nationalized healthcare, but also rent assistance/low income housing. If lower income parents had a solid roof over their head and health care insurance they would have far more energy and patience for parenting.

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caucasoidape t1_iu4ufdf wrote

More money wouldn't have stopped my redneck stepdad, and teachers from being bullies. I agree with idea of the working class getting a better cut though.

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Hanifsefu t1_iu5bw4v wrote

It's proven through sociological studies to actually stop all of that though. Crime, abuse, drug use, suicide, and many other behaviors drop significantly with sufficient social safety nets in place.

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SerialStateLineXer t1_iu84dff wrote

Where does the second clause of the title come from? I don't really see that discussed in the article or paper, though I haven't read the whole thing in detail. Is that just editorializing by OP? I didn't see anything in the paper that could be used to infer that SES causally affected willingness to gamble with stickers.

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Cayleth1791 t1_iu4en7s wrote

This message brought to you by the Research Center for the Painfully Obvious.

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pippybongstocking93 t1_iu4khbh wrote

Painfully obvious to whom? That’s a bold assumption to say that everyone already knows this.

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