SWEET TREATS are all around, so you’d think they’d be harder for today’s children to resist than for those living in the 1960s. In fact, they’re better at it. In the famous ‘marshmallow test’, in which children aged three to five were offered the choice between either having one marshmallow now or having two if they waited for several minutes, most 1960s children took the single marshmallow. Children tested in the 1980s were able to wait an average of one minute longer and, new analysis of data at the University of Washington reveals, in the 2000s that wait time leapt to two minutes longer. The ability to delay gratification has been linked with positive traits, from achieving higher test scores to the ability to cope with stress and form positive relationships with peers.