1B What is happiness?
Y
ou may have seen videos of the famous “marshmallow test” that was done at an American university in the 1970s. A young child sits at a table with a single marshmallow on a plate in front of them. The adult tells them they have a choice: they can either eat the marshmallow straight away, or if they wait for fifteen minutes without eating it, they will be given a second marshmallow – and then they can eat them both. The adult leaves the room. And you see the agony of these children, one after the other, trying not to eat the marshmallow: staring intently at it; looking up at the ceiling and pretending it’s not there; touching it; sniffing it; sometimes taking the tiniest nibble from the corner; and sometimes just giving up completely and gulping down the whole piece. The experiment is about self-control and desire, and what this says about us as human beings. Sometimes desire is uncomplicated. We want food, friendship, freedom, love, security. We want the things in front of us. We want the things we don’t have. If you’ve been fired, you want a new job. If you’ve lost your keys, you want to find them. If you’re practising for your driving test, you hope you can pass the first time. But sometimes we realise we are looking for something more. 15
