Psychology › Emotion, motivation & happiness › Self-control and willpower
Grit
2007· Concept
Mixed evidenceSome support; effects smaller or less consistent than once thought.
Angela Duckworth's term for passion and perseverance toward long-term goals, claimed to predict success beyond talent.
See it on the Psychology map →What it says
In 2007 Angela Duckworth and colleagues introduced a 12-item Grit Scale. Grittier West Point cadets were more likely to finish the brutal first summer of training, and grittier spelling-bee contestants advanced further. Her 2013 TED talk and 2016 bestseller Grit made it a school and workplace buzzword, and some school systems began measuring it. A 2017 analysis of data from about 67,000 people found grit predicts performance only modestly and is nearly indistinguishable from conscientiousness.
Why it matters
It reinforced the value of sustained effort, but also shows how a rebranded trait can be oversold. Perseverance matters; whether 'grit' adds anything new is doubtful.
The evidence
Status: mixed evidence. The perseverance part predicts some outcomes modestly; the passion part adds little. Duckworth herself has warned against using the scale to grade students or schools.
Open questions
Whether grit can be taught, and whether early success fuels persistence rather than the reverse.
Connections (3)
▸Deliberate practice and the '10,000-hour rule' is fueled by GritMixed evidence
The connection
Deliberate practice is hard and often unpleasant, so who sticks with it? Angela Duckworth found that grittier spelling-bee contestants did more deliberate practice, and that this practice explained why they advanced further. Grit, in this view, supplies the persistence that turns hours into skill. Both ideas were later found to matter less than first claimed.
Who showed it and when
Duckworth, Ericsson and colleagues studied finalists in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., published in 2011.
How solid is it?
One main study supports the chain from grit to practice to performance; a 2016 meta-analysis by Marcus Credé found grit adds little beyond conscientiousness.
Open questions
Whether grit is distinct from conscientiousness, and whether early talent fuels the will to practice rather than the reverse.
▸Grit largely repackages Conscientiousness as a life-outcome predictorMixed evidence
The connection
Duckworth's own 2007 data showed grit correlated strongly with conscientiousness. A 2017 meta-analysis pooling about 67,000 people found a corrected correlation of about .84, close to what two measures of the same trait show, and grit added little prediction once conscientiousness was counted. Duckworth describes grit as related but focused on stamina toward one long-term goal.
Who showed it and when
Duckworth and colleagues, University of Pennsylvania, 2007; Marcus Credé, Michael Tynan and Peter Harms's meta-analysis in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2017.
How solid is it?
The 2017 meta-analysis covered 88 independent samples; later studies have found similarly heavy overlap.
Open questions
Whether grit's 'passion' component, sticking with one interest for years, captures anything conscientiousness misses; evidence so far suggests little.
▸Grit is a long-term form of Self-control and willpowerMixed evidence
The connection
Duckworth and James Gross separated the two in 2014. Self-control settles momentary conflicts, such as homework versus television. Grit sustains one top-level goal for years through setbacks, such as training for a profession. The two correlate strongly; self-control better predicts everyday outcomes like grades, while grit was proposed to predict rare, long-haul achievement.
Who showed it and when
Angela Duckworth at the University of Pennsylvania and James Gross at Stanford, in Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2014.
How solid is it?
Questionnaire studies show strong correlation but somewhat different predictions; the evidence is mostly correlational and self-reported.
Open questions
Whether grit adds anything beyond self-control and conscientiousness; see grit's link to conscientiousness, where the overlap looks very high.