Where it sits
With one real exception: the perseverance half does predict things conscientiousness alone doesn't quite reach.
Tell it apart
| Aspect | Grit | Conscientiousness |
|---|---|---|
| Correlation | ρ = .84 with each other | ρ = .84 |
| Age of construct | 2007 | Decades |
| Predicts performance | ρ = .18 academic | Comparable |
| Adds anything new | Perseverance half only | — |
Empirically near-identical at ρ = .84. The useful half of grit is the perseverance side of a personality trait psychology has measured for decades. The branding is the novel part.
What it doesn't mean
The 2017 meta-analysis found grit only moderately related to performance — academic performance at ρ = .18 — and found grit explained NO incremental variance in overall academic performance or high-school GPA once conscientiousness was controlled for. The authors concluded that 'interventions designed to enhance grit may only have weak effects on performance and success'.
Overall grit correlated with conscientiousness at ρ = .84 across 22 samples and 18,826 people — higher than the .63 typically found between two different measures of conscientiousness itself. The claimed two-facet structure was not confirmed. Only perseverance of effort carried real weight; consistency of interest added almost nothing.
What it really means
Grit had the best story in psychology for a decade: not talent, not intelligence, but sticking at things — the quiet trait that separates people who finish from people who don't.
In 2017, Credé, Tynan and Harms pooled 584 effect sizes across 88 independent samples and 66,807 people, and the story did not survive.
The number that ends the argument is ρ = .84.
That is grit's correlation with conscientiousness — a personality trait psychology has been measuring for decades — across 22 samples and 18,826 people. A correlation that high runs above the .63 typically found between two different measures of conscientiousness itself. In plain terms: to the limits of our ability to detect a difference, these are the same thing.
What follows from that is the second finding. Once conscientiousness is controlled for, grit explained no incremental variance in overall academic performance or in high-school GPA. Not a small effect. Nothing left over. And its correlation with academic performance was ρ = .18 — real and modest, against a claim that it outperformed cognitive ability.
The authors' own conclusion is blunt: “interventions designed to enhance grit may only have weak effects on performance and success.”
But there is a genuine survivor, and it is worth keeping rather than throwing out with the branding.
Grit was defined as two things: perseverance of effort and consistency of interest — sticking at it, and sticking at the same it. The meta-analysis found the claimed two-facet structure was not confirmed, and the two halves came apart badly.
Perseverance of effort predicts things even after conscientiousness is accounted for. That half is real.
Consistency of interest added almost nothing, and showed signs of actively working against the measure.
Which is a more interesting result than either the original claim or the debunking. The advice that survives is keep going. The advice that does not survive is keep going at the same thing — and that second half is the one the popular version leaned on hardest.
Where it comes from
an everyday English word for coarse sand, later used figuratively for firmness of character
Not a technical coinage but a repurposed common word — part of why it travelled so fast. The deeper etymology is standard reference knowledge rather than something verified for this page.
- 2007
Angela Duckworth, with Christopher Peterson, Michael Matthews and Dennis Kelly, publish the construct and the Grit Scale in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
- 2017
Credé, Tynan and Harms publish 'Much Ado About Grit' — a meta-analysis of 584 effect sizes across 88 independent samples and 66,807 individuals.
In real life
- Grit in the literal sense: a fine layer of sand at the bottom of the salad bowl that crunches between your teeth.
- She fails her driving test three times and books a fourth the same afternoon — grit in the everyday sense of plain toughness.
- A grit questionnaire asks how far you agree with statements about finishing what you begin and not being put off by setbacks — items that critics argue measure much the same thing as existing conscientiousness scales.
Questions
Q01Did the grit research replicate?
The construct did not hold up as claimed. The 2017 meta-analysis found grit near-identical to conscientiousness and concluded that grit interventions may have only weak effects on performance and success.
Q02Is any part of grit useful?
Yes — perseverance of effort. It predicts academic performance even after controlling for conscientiousness. It is the 'passion' half, consistency of interest, that added almost nothing and showed signs of working against the measure.
Q03How big was the claim against the evidence?
Grit was presented as a better predictor of success than cognitive ability. The meta-analytic correlation with academic performance is ρ = .18 — real, modest, and a long way from the claim.
Sources
- Grit (personality trait) — Wikipedia.
- Credé, Tynan & Harms, 'Much Ado About Grit: A Meta-Analytic Synthesis of the Grit Literature' (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2017) — full text of the 2016 advance-online version.
- grit (etymology) — Etymonline.