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FORTY years ago Walter Mischel, an American psychologist, conducted a famous experiment. He left a series of four-year-olds alone in a room with a marshmallow on the table. He told them that they could eat the marshmallow at once, or wait until he came back and get two marshmallows. Recreations of the experiment on YouTube show what happens next. Some eat the marshmallow immediately. Others try all kinds of strategies to leave the tempting treat alone.
Nothing surprising there. The astonishing part was the way that the four-year-olds’ ability to defer gratification was reflected over time in their lives. Those who waited longest scored higher in academic tests at school, were much less likely to drop out of university and earned substantially higher incomes than those who gobbled up the sweet straight away. Those who could not wait at all were far more likely, in later life, to have problems with drugs or alcohol.
In his fascinating study of the unconscious mind and its impact on our lives, David Brooks uses this story to illustrate how the conscious mind learns to subdue the unconscious. This is not a question of iron will, but about developing habits and strategies that trigger helpful processes in the unconscious, rather than unproductive ones. What matters is to learn to perceive property, people or situations in ways that reduce the temptation to lie, to steal or behave in a self-destructive way.

A. 어휘
marshmallow 과자의 일종. Recreations 改造(개조).
strategies 전략. tempting 유혹하는. treat 특식.
astonishing part 놀라게 하는 부분. defer 미루다, 연기하다.
gratification 만족시키기. reflect 반영하다, 반사하다.
academic tests 학교 성적. drop out of 中退(중퇴)하다.
substantially 실제적으로, 충분히. gobbled up 먹어치우다, 통째로 삼키다.
straight away 즉시. fascinating 매혹적인, 황홀하게 하는.
unconscious mind 무의식. illustrate 예를 들어 설명하다.
subdue 鎭壓(진압)하다, 정복하다. iron will 강철 같은 의지력.
strategies 전략. trigger 觸發(촉발)시키다. perceive 감지하다.
property 재산. reduce 감소시키다. temptation 유혹.