Self-Control: Let Them Smash Cakes?

Here's a what the hell thread: young children enter a store and start smashing expensive cakes on the floor. Guess how the threadsters explain it? MrNogi's parental "ripple effect" gets over 1,000 upvotes.

Well, it just so happens a new study suggests that 64 to 75 percent of variance in self-control among seven to 12-year-olds has genetic origins, with the rest caused by non-shared environments, but the study relies on self-reports, so that's a caveat.

Of course, the study stats don't tell us about the smasher's specific situation, so we shouldn't rush to causal conclusions about them, although I know what I would do if they were my kids, and it wouldn't be pretty.