I watched a TV talk show one time. During the course of the program, they had some cookies set on a table in a room with a hidden camera and two way mirror. They then created a situation where the kids and their parents came to where that room was. The families entered in one at a time so that there was only one child and one adult in the room at a time. Each child was told by their parent, “I have to go out and get something. If you leave the cookies alone, when I get back, you can have one.”

Very few of those kids waited until their parent came back. Some took longer than others to actually eat a cookie. Some of the kids waited until the door was shut and were at the table, eating. Others played with them a little before actually eating one. I remember one boy walking around the table and touching one cookie, walking around and touching another, walking around, walking around…until finally, as if he couldn’t stand it any longer, he was cramming cookies into his mouth.