[elishah]

Yes, that famous marshmallow test has now been debunked several times from several angles. Many of them come down to the issue that the test was not measuring the participants' willpower so much as it was measuring their confidence that the test administrator would follow through on their promise.

So regardless of the validity of the method proposed here, I'd say that framing this article around references to that experiment is a mistake.

[danielheath]

I’d argue it offers an equally important conclusion; the people around you have better outcomes if you give them reason to trust you will follow through on your word.