Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals.

2007/01/01 by Angela L. Duckworth, Angela Duckworth, Christopher Peterson +2 · 6,863 citations
Psychology · #Academic achievement #Big Five personality traits #Cognitive Abilities and Testing #Conscientiousness #Developmental psychology #Education, Achievement, and Giftedness #Extraversion and introversion #Grit #Grit, Self-Efficacy, and Motivation #Incremental validity #Passion #Personality #Predictive validity #Psychology #Psychometrics #Ranking (information retrieval) #Social psychology #Test validity #Trait #Variance (accounting)

paper · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087

published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92(6), 1087-1101 (American Psychological Association)

openalex publication_date 2007/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

The importance of intellectual talent to achievement in all professional domains is well established, but less is known about other individual differences that predict success. The authors tested the importance of 1 noncognitive trait: grit. Defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals, grit accounted for an average of 4% of the variance in success outcomes, including educational attainment among 2 samples of adults (N=1,545 and N=690), grade point average among Ivy League undergraduates (N=138), retention in 2 classes of United States Military Academy, West Point, cadets (N=1,218 and N=1,308), and ranking in the National Spelling Bee (N=175). Grit did not relate positively to IQ but was highly correlated with Big Five Conscientiousness. Grit nonetheless demonstrated incremental predictive validity of success measures over and beyond IQ and conscientiousness. Collectively, these findings suggest that the achievement of difficult goals entails not only talent but also the sustained and focused application of talent over time.

Citations

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