Statistics

Psychology

Task (project management)

Psychiatry

Engineering

Developmental psychology

Standardized test

Intervention (counseling)

Test (biology)

Mathematics

Biology

Grit

Systems engineering

Mathematics education

Randomized experiment

Surgery

Paleontology

Randomized controlled trial

Medicine

The Quarterly Journal of Economics

We show that grit, a skill that has been shown to be highly predictive of achievement, is malleable in childhood and can be fostered in the classroom environment. We evaluate a randomized educational intervention implemented in two independent elementary school samples. Outcomes are measured via a novel incentivized real-effort task and performance in standardized tests. We find that treated students are more likely to exert effort to accumulate task-specific ability and hence more likely to succeed. In a follow up 2.5 years after the intervention, we estimate an effect of about 0.2 standard deviations on a standardized math test.

Ever Failed, Try Again, Succeed Better: Results from a Randomized Educational Intervention on Grit*