Grit

Origins of the idea

Whether effort matters more than talent is an old question. In Hereditary Genius (1869) Francis Galton wrote that eminent people combine ability with zeal and a capacity for hard work. In 2007 Angela Duckworth, Christopher Peterson and colleagues defined grit as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. It is measured on two facets: consistency of interest, or not switching goals easily, and perseverance of effort, or continuing despite setbacks. The 12-item Grit Scale (2007) and the 8-item Short Grit Scale, or Grit-S (2009), are the standard measures.

Key findings

Early studies found that grit predicted, independent of IQ, which new West Point cadets made it through the grueling first-summer training, how far children advanced in the National Spelling Bee, and GPA among Ivy League undergraduates. A 2014 study reported that grittier people were less likely to drop out of Army Special Forces selection, sales jobs, high school and marriages. Duckworth popularized the work in Grit (2016), and the concept joined Ericsson's research on deliberate practice (1993), Dweck's growth mindset, Mischel's delay-of-gratification studies and flow as a headline idea in the debate over non-cognitive skills.

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Criticism and assessment

A 2017 meta-analysis by Marcus Credé and colleagues, pooling 88 samples and more than 66,000 people, found only moderate links between grit and performance and a very high overlap with conscientiousness from the Big Five, questioning whether grit is a new construct. Most of the predictive power came from perseverance of effort, while consistency of interest added little. Other concerns include the limits of self-report scales and the risk that stressing individual persistence obscures structural barriers such as poverty and discrimination. Read alongside self-determination theory and achievement motivation theory, however, the research is still seen as pointing to the role of meaningful goals and genuine interest in sustaining long-term effort.

FAQ

Is grit innate?

Twin studies suggest part of grit is heritable, but scores also tend to rise with age, which is read as evidence that experience and environment matter a great deal.

Is grit the same as conscientiousness?

They are very close. Meta-analyses find high correlations between the two, and many researchers treat grit as a facet of conscientiousness; Duckworth argues that grit's distinctive feature is consistency toward long-term goals.

Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26

References

1. Galton, F. (1869). Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into Its Laws and Consequences. London: Macmillan.
2. Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Rodriguez, M. L. (1989). Delay of gratification in children. Science, 244(4907), 933–938.
3. Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363–406.
4. Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House.
5. Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087–1101.
6. Duckworth, A. L., & Quinn, P. D. (2009). Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), 166–174.
7. Moffitt, T. E., et al. (2011). A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety. PNAS, 108(7), 2693–2698.
8. Eskreis-Winkler, L., Shulman, E. P., Beal, S. A., & Duckworth, A. L. (2014). The grit effect: Predicting retention in the military, the workplace, school and marriage. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 36.
9. Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. New York: Scribner.
10. Credé, M., Tynan, M. C., & Harms, P. D. (2017). Much ado about grit: A meta-analytic synthesis of the grit literature. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), 492–511.