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Chapter 4: How Gritty Are You?
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Grit, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Passion, Perseverance, and Success
Developing Grit
Psychology and Human Development
Grit and Society
Summary
Analysis
People frequently ask Duckworth the extent to which grit is genetic. But both genes and experience—or nature and nurture—influence every human characteristic. For instance, even though people ordinarily think of height as genetic, improved medicine and nutrition have dramatically increased average human height over the last 150 years. Similarly, talent is partially genetic and partially environmental. For example, Dan Chambliss’s swimming career never took off both because his toes aren’t flexible enough and because he had bad coaches in high school. Unsurprisingly, then, grit is also both genetic and environmental. When UK researchers gave the Grit Scale to thousands of twins, they found that heritability accounts for 20 percent of differences in passion and 37 percent of differences in perseverance. Of course, this depends on many different genes, not just one.
Understanding where grit comes from is important not only as a matter of scientific curiosity, but also because it can show the extent to which grit is within people’s control. Of course, as Duckworth points out, psychologists now widely agree that virtually all traits have both genetic and environmental components, which means that they are partially (but not entirely) within people’s control. This doesn’t mean that it’s easy to change these traits—only that it’s possible. In fact, the heritability research on grit suggests that it's mostly the result of environmental factors, which suggests that people can become grittier if they take the right steps and experience the right family, social, and cultural influences. Duckworth will explain this in much more detail over the following chapters.
Themes
Moreover, while heritability explains variation, it doesn’t explain averages—or how they can change. For instance, the researcher Jim Flynn famously found that average human IQs are significantly increasing over time. Just like kids got better at basketball when television made the sport more popular, Flynn argued, people’s abstract reasoning skills are improving because modern schools and jobs highly value those skills.
Flynn’s findings suggest that individual traits like IQ can change over time as part of broader cultural trends. The implications for grit are clear: if grit became as popular as basketball, then perhaps everyone would become grittier together. Of course, the opposite could also happen: cultural shifts could make grit less common or harder to develop.
Themes
Duckworth has found that, unlike IQ scores, grit scores are higher among older adults. Perhaps culture change has made younger generations less dedicated and hardworking. Or perhaps people just become grittier as they age, since getting older generally forces people to define their goals, deal with failure, and adapt to new circumstances. For instance, Duckworth’s three-year-old daughter, Lucy, potty trained herself after moving to a new class, and a friend’s teenage daughter suddenly became punctual when her new manager promised to fire anyone who was late. Duckworth still doesn’t have enough data to know for sure why aging leads to an increase in grittiness, but she suspects that culture and maturity each partially explain generational differences in grit.
As a scientist, Duckworth must consider all possible explanations for her findings until she has sufficient evidence to set forth just one answer. Certainly, specific cultural changes—like new technologies that make everyday tasks easier—could leave younger generations needing much less grit than their ancestors. But the other explanation, that people become grittier as they age, is also consistent with Duckworth’s evidence about how people develop their passions and learn perseverance over time. Regardless, the examples that Duckworth cites here show that grit is clearly learnable—which means that, regardless of society-wide averages, individuals can still build their own grit in the right circumstances.
Themes
Next, Duckworth asks how people’s grit grows. Many people feel that they lack grit because they are lazy or flaky, but actually, they tend to have real reasons for not finishing things—like boredom, inability, or not caring enough about the goal. All of these thoughts are reasonable, especially when they pertain to unimportant, low-level goals. But Duckworth notes that she’s consistently seen four traits in highly gritty people: interest in their work, the willingness to practice skills constantly in the long term, a sense of purpose (or the feeling that their work benefits others), and hope that they can overcome obstacles. People can learn all four of these traits, and the next four chapters will explain how.
Readers might find Duckworth’s sympathy for quitters to be surprising, but it’s helpful to recall that grit is about consistently pursuing one specific overarching goal rather than stubbornly sticking with everything one does. Therefore, when people choose not to follow through with things, it doesn’t always mean they lack grit. Instead, quitting can often be the solution that helps people dedicate their time and energy to goals that really matter. The four traits that Duckworth specifies all contribute to success. Interest motivates people to work harder and innovate in their fields. Practice improves people’s skills, which enables them to improve their performance. Purpose also motivates people by creating a powerful sense of obligation. This and hope both help people keep going when they hit major obstacles.
Themes
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