Grit Trumps Talent? An experimental approach

Leonie Gerhards () and Christina Gravert
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Leonie Gerhards: Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University

No 629, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: Perseverance to accomplish long-term goals, also know as grit, is a crucial determinant for success in life. In the present study we introduce an innovative laboratory design to elicit grit in an incentivized and controlled way. Subjects work on a computerized task to solve anagrams. By observing their decision not to shirk, we measure their grittiness experimentally. We find that the original questionnaire measure of grit developed by Duckworth et al. (2007) is significantly correlated with our new experimental measure - even when controlling for ability and a questionnaire measure of self-control. Moreover, subjects' earnings increase in their experimentally elicited grit.

Keywords: Grit; perseverance; laboratory experiment; real-effort task (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 J24 M50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2015-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-hrm and nep-neu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Grit Trumps Talent? An experimental approach (2015)
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