notes on grit

Cognitive and noncognitive predictors of success

https://www.pnas.org/content/116/47/23499

For example, cognitive ability has been found in some samples to be linearly related to academic achievement (49, 50) but among the very brightest, concavely related to both leadership (51) and mental health (52). Despite the enormous statistical power of the this investigation, we found concave curvilinear effects for only one—although arguably, the most important—measure of success: graduation.

Whereas deficits of ability clearly impede success, benefits at the uppermost echelons are less clear, and in fact, it may be that individuals with “everything going for them” get up and go elsewhere. This explanation is consistent with laboratory research showing that having multiple alternatives for achieving one’s goals can diminish commitment to any particular path (53).

There may be severe limits to how well any set of personal attributes can forecast an individual’s destiny. People change. Contexts change. And life trajectories are shaped by the whims of chance and path dependency (57, 58).