Can 4 year olds be temperate in the presence of a marshmallow?

Martin Seligman describes temperance as including,

…the ability to protect against excess and delay gratification. It includes humility and modesty. And being careful about choices and not taking undue risks. It also includes forgiveness and giving people a second chance. There is an aspect of self-regulation here – controlling your appetite and emotions, being disciplined, regulating what you feel and do. The temperate person does not suppress motives or desires but waits for until it is wise and appropriate to satisfy them, so no harm is done to self or others.

Let’s a take a look at the Marshmallow Test, where, “the ability of four year olds to control impulses and delay gratification was tested.” In this experiment designed by Mischel, Ebbesen, & Zeiss in 1972, children are left alone (except in one case, where two children are together) in a room, sitting at a small table with a single marshmallow placed in front of them on a plate. A friendly lady gives the instructions in front of the hidden camera: “You can eat the marshmallow now. Or if you wait, when I come back I’ll bring you another one and you can have two!” Well, just imagine the temptation.

I like that one of the young men who is best able to control his desire for that marshmallow, arrived sporting a full-body dalmation costume that has great, floppy ears. He’s clearly an out of the box character, and I get the sense that he has a pretty good idea already of how to make good use of his strengths.