Why does the `then()` handler of a promise execute immediately?

Question

I want to learn more thoroughly how promises work in JavaScript and I tried the following code:

function delay(timeout) {
    return new Promise(function(resolve, reject){
        setTimeout(resolve,timeout);
    });
}

var promise = delay(10000);
promise.then(alert('after delay'));

I wanted to write a wrapper for the JavaScript setTimeout() function and I assume alert should execute after 10 seconds. However, this code shows it immediately.

Could someone explain what is wrong here?

Answer 1

Add function to your then statement:

promise.then(function(){
    alert('after delay')
});

Answer 2

The reason is explain by Quentin's answer. An additional solution would be using arrow functions:

promise.then(() => alert('after delay'));