Philip Zimbardo - The Secret Powers of Time

Professor Philip Zimbardo reveals how our individual perspective on time affects our work, health and well-being.
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[@pegatrisedmice]

i just realized how i agreed with most of the things he said, but i just spent about an hour and half watching his videos, despite the fact i have a ton of work to do for college tomorow

[@LadyTigerLily]

That doesn't necessarily hold up. Kids who are used to getting whatever they want rather than waiting for things may have a harder time resisting temptation. If you're used to living without things, you tend to save things. My grandmother, for example, was born in the 1921 and stockpiles food because she remembered what it was like to never have enough. Conversely, my college roommate always spent her paycheck on payday because her parents gave her money in-between checks if she needed more.

[@indivisibleremainder]

He's definitely orientated to future sales of his book and present orientated in telling us to buy it now...

[@tklcpkp]

you definitely poor.

[@melsvids73]

I love listening to Prof Zimbardo lectures. I wish I went to Stanford.

[@TheKibeer]

Zen Buddhism and lately Eckhart Tolle's re-interpretation in 'Power of Now' is very inspiring on this subject.

[@cutifat]

Very interesting and insightful viewpoints and research. It's much easier to categorize all kinds of behaviors and thus easier to deal with the problems regarded. Thank you, Professor Zimbardo for the brilliant work!

[@FusionDeveloper]

He never specified to that boy, if the "wait" was either for "not eating" or "until he came back" and mentioned he was leaving and coming back and made sure he knew he could eat it now. It is up to interpretation, but both "waiting to eat" or "waiting here until I return" are both valid possibilities. If he said "if you eat this now then that is all you get, but if you don't eat it, then when i get back, you can trade it for twice as many", then there would be nothing to decide. Wording is vital

[@gourmander]

This guy must get a standing ovation wherever he goes, with great reason too!

[@ArtAristocracy]

a child's social and economic background heavily influenced whether or not they could resist the ability to wait for a second treat. And even if a kid managed to resist the temptation, if his or her parents weren't wealthy and/or college graduates, they didn't fare better in the future than their peers.

[@Banderbear200]

I just love Zimbardo he is so interesting to listen to, and his idea's are fantastic. :)

[@LadyTigerLily]

:O! I just realized, I have the same tie Zimbardo's wearing.

[@MakeoverSessions]

I love this. Love it love it love it!

[@andrewmurray3466]

its passion that drives the hearty

[@BatmanSucksMyBanana]

i can listen to this guys lectures for hours

[@LiaxJersey12]

@BrianLeexx hmm...interesting idea. Heroes often seem to act impulsively..that is to say, they are presently oriented. Then again, it could be they rapidly consider risk v reward, consequence v gain, thus making them future oriented. I seem to lean toward they follow their intuition and that leads them in the right direction (but not to be confused with 'fate') .

[@aux_anges]

There's no future tense in Japanese either, but that doesn't seem to stop the Japanese from getting things done. As to the marshmallow experiment, 653 kids were originally tested. In two follow-up studies, varying amounts of data (parental ratings on two questionnaires and some kids' SAT scores) were obtained on a total of 185 children. Besides, as the researchers report, "even the highest correlations account for only about 25% of the variance." Not exactly very persuasive.

[@wildcardbitchesss]

exactly but words could be very flexible if you emphasize them in different ways.in your first comment you mentioned about wrong word desicions. and again you mentioned that kid planned/intended getting more chocolate, but he was not, he just missunderstood because of the flexiblity of the language. nearly all of us understood the commands which were given by zimbardo correctly, because of his emphasizes. but the kid couldn't just because of verdancy.

[@eaglewings1934]

I honestly don't know what kind of person I am on the past/present/future scale. I can relate to things that apply to all of those categories.

[@soellesko]

you are balanced ;)

[@silvialozeva]

My understanding is that we all share some characteristics form certain perspectives, however we should aim to reduce the negative ones and improve the positive ones.

[@silvialozeva]

that's not very nice

[@DersimLondon]

Amazing

[@FusionDeveloper]

It's a fact that most people are very poor at giving precise directions. When I began to learn to do (computer software) programming, I learned how things you believe are straightforward, are interpreted differently than you expected and realize the proper way to word something so that the outcome is always what you expect. When the outcome is not what you expect, you should go back and say "well, how could this result in this answer, what single word is too vague and how can I fix the wording?"

[@setLillie]

Staff Academy Career Course got me here. Past Positive with some future tendencies. YUT!

[@FusionDeveloper]

"this kid will be in trouble in the world" (because of ppl like that man) but the man giving the presentation is in trouble, because he is poor at giving directions. The boy, on the other hand, is very intelligent and does very well following directions and did exactly what he said and expecting him to do exactly what the man said. Some people are good at filling in the blanks of poor instructions, while others look for potential loopholes to get what they want while still following the rules.

[@FusionDeveloper]

If he had given exact instructions, his points would still be valid. It doesn't really matter that it was the mans fault in wording, because he would have simply just kept testing kids until he found one that fully understood the exact instructions, then his entire presentation and speech and observations would be identical to what he said. I think the boy is smarter than average, but being smarter, sometimes makes life harder and/or more complicated when dealing with other people. I can relate.

[@kubarojek]

Anybody knows where I can get the paper "Resisting Temptation - Psychological Research brings new strength to understanding will power" that is show in the video at 2:17. I can not find it anything online.

[@FusionDeveloper]

Very True on both replies!

[@learninlife]

Ok, I hope someone can answer this question as I didn't notice it coming up in the topic. Are there any tips how one from one time reference can productively work with someone of another time reference? Can we do exercises with our children to help them to learn delayed gratification? Or is it more of a character trait that one needs to work with, rather than replace?

[@glidingstar]

Great talk and I agree with almost everything being said. Just wanted to say that there are surely other cures for PTSD and addiction. *points to psilocybin* . :)

[@MrVagtube]

His work on the Stanford Prison experiment is a must read and is the scientific foundation for Human Rights.

[@PlantPerson29360]

@guest2424 You technically are right but it shows something more interesting implied meaning to things is often more important to society than exact words. He physically with his body showed that the waiting was about waiting to not eat the candy. This might show how picking up on body language or getting what is meant to be said is important in navigating successfully in society.

[@FusionDeveloper]

As a computer programmer, changing a single word in instructions, can cause the app to do something completely un-intended and just because you personally understand what the instructions are, if they are not COMPLETELY clear and explicit, then the instructions can preform tasks that you didn't expect and while u think the program is malfunctioning, it is really YOUR instructions that are un-clear or incorrect for what you wish to happen. "I think" is not the same as "I know", but are similar.

[@VictoriaSobocki]

exactly!

[@666alberto]

@guest2424 totally agree, the OR doesn't specify that the meaning of "wait" was BOTH 1) wait (sitten maybe) 2)don't eat, that sound to me like a tricky phrase(even if i'm italian), too much for a children to understand, infact the scope should have been not a indirect phrase but just the time-question..

[@silvialozeva]

That time perspective theory is very interesting and I found it very very useful! However, there are some things I disagree with - for example, it is not true that in communism people were present- fatalists and believed nothing they do can change the future. Quite on the opposite - the communist ideal was built on the idea of sacrificing your present and to work very hard for the future, to build a brighter, better future for your children and grand-children. I do agree that this creates certain conflict between old generations and new ones, because young people may be more present -oriented, BUT some of this future-thinking and planning is inevitable dispersed through them too. If not because of their parents and grand-parents, it is because of the hardships they had to experience of the change of economic and political regimes.

[@ahmesceanga6382]

This is so superficial, I used to have complete impulse control, almost destroyed me, I switched to no impulse control and it set me free.

[@FusionDeveloper]

he did say "if you wait" but he didn't specify "if you wait AND DON'T EAT THIS, then when i get back, ill give you another one and then you can eat two instead of one, but if you eat this one now, when i get back, you get nothing". The problem is, you can do things while you wait, if you don't specify that you can't do a specific thing while waiting, people assume they can. The problem is that he left out the details and ASSUMED he knew what he meant. That is a common problem with instructions.

[@wildcardbitchesss]

zimbardo: you can eat this now but if you wait ( patiente of not eating) I'll give you another. child : I can eat this but if I wait (patiente of staying still, not leaving) he'll give me two more its just a simple missunderstanding. there are no quirky stuff, no tricks and no drama at all.

[@soellesko]

at about 8:00 .. obviously some children did not quite understand what the "task" was.. I really think some of those kids could´ve made it but they just didn´t get what he was saying

[@EugeneMayevski]

And that also is part of those chindren's nature. They didn't bother to think or to listen attentively, hence the result

[@didgevibratesmybrain9350]

I think he gave more strict subconscious guidelines, through his speech and actions, to some of them than others. And of course there was a different level of discipline and imagination between the kids.

[@VictoriaSobocki]

Great point he makes! Really cool/cute experiment with the marshmallows, and interesting to see how the same kids did in school many years after. Fun thing with the Sicillian accent thing tho! I am possibly a "future" person in general, but I tend to be the other ones too :)

[@TamraCallahan]

any suggestion on how to teach children how to be a balanced person as such?

[@jorge.r.garciadealba]

I would like to learn more.

[@learninlife]

@inappropriategiggle I think you took some serious leap there. The "line" was a division created by a political organization in Italy. Kind of like you might see a line where people in WA state want to divide that state into 2 states (which comes up periodically) or CA where people want to divide that state (which also comes up periodically). His point was to illustrate that 2 different people who operate on two different time references are going to end up judging each other.

[@fmbighair]

@guest2424 I know what you mean, he SHOULD of worded it different by saying that you not only have to WAIT to get 2 but you must NOT eat it. Good point.

[@BrianLeexx]

Question. Are "heroes" that we see and read about in the news present oriented people?

[@JimChuong]

It is easier to avoid temptation than it is to resist it.

[@brownrootz6714]

the volume on the source of this video is too quite. can you raise it and then post again?

[@mtb416]

@DatBoiiRun I agree. People are moving at different speeds, and if the people who are "slower" do not "speed up" they will undoubtedly be left behind. If they refuse to adapt to the future and present world they also become less main-streamed and at least perceived as being less intelligent. People need not focus on the line so much. When I see the line I see Group A of people on one side and Group B on the other. It is not geography to me. It is differing teams. Location might matter.

[@bullspreadblues]

@34:50 As a guy from the post-soviet block, this is so fucking true.

[@shiftyjake]

@guest2424 It might not have mattered how precise his language was. I've seen kids so entranced by the goody in front of them, they seem incapable of *hearing* instructions, let alone following them. Also, I find that kids at that age sometimes respond better to physical examples than verbal instructions. Maybe the kid would have understood if he had mimed some of the instructions. Maybe not. Who knows.

[@emil246]

sounds more like the environment ie government policy, corporate policy increase poverty which leads to these psychological effects given that income inequality is increasing from the 1940s to today.

[@SquanchThisJob]

Does anyone know MLA Format for citing this?

[@godmode9]

@inappropriategiggle This isnt his study. It was conducted at Stanford University in the 60s and im sure, like any scientific test, those factors were minimized.

[@FusionDeveloper]

All the man said was: "if you are here when I return, I will give you more". The kid waited for him and when the man returned, he was ready for his reward for not leaving, but then the man said "well you did something i didn't say you couldn't do, so now you get nothing". It's like saying "if you wake up at 7am, ill give you $100", and you wake up at 7am and 3 hours later you go back to bed and they say "you don't get the money, i was here at 11am and you were sleeping". Be specific!

[@wildcardbitchesss]

yes, but the point is if the majority ( near %99 )of the respondents understood the commands correctly, how and why a does person need to be more specific? we act if we see a problem. in fact its universal. zimbardo could not even imagine the kid could get this command so wrongly or differently then he meant. but after that incident zimbardo would know his command was not so clear and specific. he would change it or be more specific if the respondent could not understand the subject.

[@FusionDeveloper]

however, as I have said, he could have been more exact and he still would have been able to display the same results with different kids who 100% fully understood without any question. My point isn't about if his science was right or wrong, just that, in general, I want people to be very clear when giving instructions because I have been given vague instructions before and what I assumed, was wrong, especially in school for tests that ask vague questions which can have an answer not listed.

[@morbidbushido]

I dont think all kids adhere to thesame model of communication in situations like that...the kid that ate the treat way too early for instance may have waited if the terms were outlined to him in a way that would be more condusive to his method of understanding.

[@wallacewade93]

i'm curious is there some kind of test that i could take to know if i am future past or present? i would be very interested if there is! replicating what he has said is all good but i need something on a grander scale.

[@jonorice1678]

His website that he says in the opening

[@erikbradford456]

You answered your own question. You are future oriented.

[@FusionDeveloper]

7:10 schooled by a little kid, but he didn't get it. "you can eat this now, but if you wait, i will give you two of them" He should have learned and said "oh i see, you outsmarted me, I should have said, you can change the 1 un-eaten chocolate for 2 chocolate candies" as far as the kid was concerned he heard "you can eat this now and if your still here when I get back, i will give you two more" Phillip knew what he meant to say, but he worded it wrong and should have given the kid 2 more

[@FusionDeveloper]

7:19 & 7:33 & 7:42 he says "but" every time... then listen 8:20 he claims he said "or" he even emphasis on it "OOORRRR!!!" I'm sorry, "but" is not the same as "or". If you don't believe me, make sentence with the words and see they can't be exchanged. "I went to the store, but I didn't buy bread" ... "I went to the store or I didn't buy bread"... "Do you want 1 or 2?", "Do you want 1 but 2?" ...

[@666alberto]

28:20 about hedonistic really nice, "whatever age you are you are still a kid.. and this is where improvisation come true: so every businness want one of these, but not two" =) that's why it's so difficult to dialogate with "the boss", and your ideas (maybe accettable) seem like to steal "the boss" job

[@FusionDeveloper]

@guest2424 he said "BUT if you wait, ill give you two" then after he reviewed it, he claimed he said "OR if you wait". Would be better to say "you have 2 choices, 1 or 2 treats, if you only want 1 then eat it whenever, but if you'd rather have 2 instead, then you MUST leave it on the table & when I come back, i'll give you a 2nd one and THEN you can eat both." Poor instructions is a major problem in society, even in school. Some people either guess the intention or are poor at comprehension. :p

[@TheArkFan]

Does anybody know where to find lecture about the marshmallow experiment, documentation about approach and results?

[@mspjmason]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment

[@clubtribun]

WOWWWWWWWWWWWWW

[@The3nlightened0ne]

@idpsycho Actually, rich kids tend to get higher grades in school, and are therefore more future oriented.

[@learninlife]

@inappropriategiggle Your post kind of reminds me of the boy at the marshmellow experiment who did not comprehend the meaning of "if you wait, you can have two" Well actually he did comprehend it, but not in the intended manner it was said....same goes here, me thinks.

[@Insider_English]

but there could be many reasons the boy ate the chocolate!! content with only 1, misunderstood "if you wait" with " if you ate" or simply "if-conditional" maybe he wanted to risk the consequence to see if he could bargain for another chocolate. Maybe Philip didn't talk to him at eye level - get the boy to look him in the eyes and and and

[@Angel070385]

Seul le présent compte et a de l'importance. Le futur n'existe pas encore, il dépend de ce qui se passe dans le présent. Le passé n'existe plus. L'action se passera toujours dans le présent. En ne vivant pas le moment présent, on rate l'occasion de forger l'avenir.

[@ruralpotter]

I have always thought that impulse control AND having the ability to amuse oneselves are virtues.

[@fireballfitness170]

37:36....time therapy for PTSD Vets.....

[@FusionDeveloper]

Right, and choosing ways of speaking that have flexibility in their meanings, can lead to misunderstanding. Think about the classic Genie granting wishes. People say "i wish i was rich" and they become the head of an illegal violent group of people. Their wish was too vague. If you wish someone dead was alive, maybe they become a zombie. If something is important enough, words should be chosen very carefully, especially if scientific conclusions are drawn from it or if peoples lives are at risk.

[@travisjtagart]

Zimbardo addresses that, though.

[@nightfall88]

He got everything right. Serpent tempted Eve. Eve temted Adam, You're the one who doesn't understand something.

[@xtremelycra2i]

In "Mundart" (Swiss-German Dialect) we do not have the past simple form, maybe that has led to a more career/future-oriented society :/

[@Pomme843]

@JosefVStalin I'm waiting for The Milgram Experiment Part 2: The Real Thing.

[@ohgin12345]

Know it is just a small thing but it shows how much facts he knows. He got it wrong about Satan as well.

[@THX1449]

@inappropriategiggle there are these things called chill pills, you need some.

[@FusionDeveloper]

@guest2424 However, I must say, that even though his study is flawed due to improper instruction, his research and data is still awesome! Also LOL @JosefVStalin, he DOES look like a magician! If I was the kid at 7 minutes, I would have eaten it and been like "you told me i could eat this now, but if i don't leave, when you come back you will give me 2, you didn't say if I ate it, I couldn't have 2, if you meant that, you should have said that, this was a brain teaser and I win, so hand it over."

[@TheExtendedMagzine]

i wish to be optimal, i am....i guess, but i'd like to confirm that.

[@1interesting2]

I was going to buy the book, but I thought if I waited, some one may buy me 2 books.

[@deeplydeluxe]

Health ministers take note 32:40

[@666alberto]

@idpsycho xD steve jobs was hungry, he would have eaten it immediately maybe ?=D

[@ohgin12345]

To think that we even need a psychologist to tell us this. Wow

[@Progenitura]

duuuude....lemmy kilmister :D

[@FusionDeveloper]

What if he had come back and said, "Well, I know I said i'd give you another if you didn't eat it while I was gone, but I need you to give me that one instead and you get nothing, today, you learn that you can't trust that people will be honest". Yeah, if someone gives you hot food and says "ill give you more when I get back, but don't eat it until I get back" and they come back when it's cold or they don't come back at all...

[@ReformedThe]

Might as well say might as well had him die as soon as he left the room.... Soo dumb. Its about temptation not trusting or seeing if you can follow rules. TEMPTATION. Its not difficult ti understand. Its a minimalistic study that leans towards temptations. Your what if doesnt matter nor effects the study.... Smh.... You people are weird.

[@God8010]

It's interesting but until I better understand the study groups I'll always feel a bias to these results.

[@silvialozeva]

Dr Zimbargo, do I have a future?

[@vusalganboyzada9852]

if u keep doin what they want u to do, u don't ? dont feel forced to ask only a professor.but all of us

[@LukeDeVari]

19:00 Japanese doesn't have a future-tense verb, but they are very progressive as a society... Implication of context lets you know you're talking about the future

[@666alberto]

NICE but too much 'easy', and the only aspects (at least in this vid) can't be just drink and driving.. i could find a lot of exception..

[@beautifulsmall]

can governments run gambling and pull its population out of the mud by the hair .if gambling machines could educate or accumulate (future ). the occulus rift and full emersion is a complete present system , the real future is left empty. but you can plan for the future in the virtual world.

[@LuqmanNaq]

@learninlife Dunno, but Neil Postman makes a persuasive agument that any medium creates a cognitive bias. So if your children are deeply into technology they will become more present orientated. Guys who have his belief tend to advocate, serverly limiting TV and limiting technology. I wish I had that happen as a kid I probably wouldn't have such trouble focusing, I can focus ok when interacting with technolog,y but otherwise :-(

[@DimitriAUSm]

Past present and future are abstracts kept in the human memory. Memory state correlated with intellect, emotions and the other stuff he is talking 40 minutes about. He’s invited a bicycle ...

[@LionKimbro]

I'd rather eat the marshmallow, and get it out of the way (freeing up my thoughts and feelings for other things,) than stare at a marshmallow for 15 minutes, so that I could... have TWO marshmallows?

[@johnstuart6631]

But what if it was a free car instead of a marshmallow? To a kid a marshmallow can provide that amount of excitement. Of course you don't care about a second marshmallow, you're an adult!

[@grichkabogdanoff9797]

i wish this wasn't recorded on a rock

[@redbaronbluemax1]

perhaps the majority of the kids didn't love marshmallow?

[@lnyitrai]

Zimbardo was very fast to accept the "missing future tense in Sicilian dialect" statement without checking its validity because it gives credibility to his hypothesis. A good story sells better than data. Unfortunately, stating that the Sicilian language doesn’t have future tense is akin of stating that the English or the modern Greek language don’t have a future tense. Both English and Modern Greek do have a future tense, only that is made using compounds with either a verb (“will”) or a particle (θα, which itself is a contraction of θέλω να, that’s it “want to”, “will”).

[@TheExtendedMagzine]

God dammit, i think i'm past negative, dammit i have to stop. any suggeations, this video is amazing since i learned so much about people and myself, but thing i dont want to be past negative, any suggestions anyone?

[@reforest4fertility]

Tuning back into their discussion (betw Adam & Eve) "the fruit is delicious because it's forbidden". Hmmm, well there's a plausible Biblical injunction, or warning, against prohibition. Remove the mystique from what are consensual acts anyways -- and POOF! -- this spell is immediately dispelled. I know this is so obvious, but just as obviously needs to be said, sadly.

[@georgiosraikos3407]

Dr Philip Zimbardo who run the STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT should not have legal clearance to run either "shows" or sell books on his self-imagined cruelty. He is simply insane as well as a felon.

[@blalboz]

i was listening carefully until the crap he said about lower class people being that way because they're present or past oriented. that's a load of bull and i'm honestly surprised that a brilliant mind like Zimbardo could just throw that in as if there's nothing more to social stratification.

[@johnsmith-qe2fd]

How about just live life and enjoy the time we have?

[@dr.banana2828]

i am disappointed in this lecture. he spends 90% of his time PROVING that his main statement is correct, rather than just explaining it in detail. 1 study after the other that confirms what he says.