Grit

What is Grit?

Grit describes sustained perseverance and interest in long-term goals. Angela Duckworth and colleagues introduced the construct and a scale in 2007, then examined its relationship with achievement in several samples. It combines continuing to work with continuing to care about the same goal.

Examples of Grit

A student who continues working toward a degree after setbacks, an athlete who maintains a training commitment, or an entrepreneur who keeps developing a business might be described as gritty. These examples illustrate persistence. They do not tell us whether persistence caused success, or whether continuing was the best choice.

Grit and Conscientiousness

Credé, Tynan, and Harms’ 2017 meta-analysis covered 88 samples and 66,807 people. Grit was strongly related to conscientiousness, an established personality trait. Perseverance of effort was more useful for predicting performance than consistency of interests.

This raises an important question: how much does grit add beyond what we already know about personality? Giving a familiar cluster of traits a memorable name does not automatically give us a better predictor.

Criticisms and Practical Limits

A relationship between grit scores and achievement does not show that teaching grit will improve performance. Measuring a trait and changing it are different problems. Skills, resources, support, and the opportunities available to a person also matter.

Persistence is not always wise. A goal can become unworkable or cease to be worth its cost. The useful question is not simply whether someone will keep going, but whether the goal, feedback, costs, and alternatives justify continued effort.