Reply to Guo et al. and Credé: Grit-S scale measures only perseverance, not passion, and its supposed subfactors are merely artifactors

We (1) propose that evidence linking grit and performance is mixed because the measure used to assess grit—the Short Grit (Grit-S) scale (2)—captures only perseverance, not passion, whereas the definition of grit encompasses both perseverance and passion (3). Our studies find that the combination of perseverance (measured through the whole Grit-S scale) and passion (measured through the passion attainment scale) predicted higher performance. In their letters, Guo et al. (4) and Crede (5) suggest that the Grit-S scale should be treated as reflecting two factors. Crede (5) subsequently advocates for and Guo et al. (4) conducts separate analyses for each supposed subfacet of the Grit-S scale (called “perseverance of effort” and “consistency of interests”). In this response, we provide additional evidence that the Grit-S scale is unidimensional. That is, there is no validity to the claims by Guo et al. (4) and Crede (5) that the Grit-S scale is composed of two subfactors. As a result, the analyses advocated by both letters are inappropriate. Instead, the Grit-S scale should be treated as unidimensional, which is how we conducted our original analyses (1). A careful examination of the Grit-S scale items reveals two important points. First, closely reading the scale items highlights that the Grit-S scale captures perseverance alone and does not capture passion. Passion, defined as “a strong feeling toward a personally important value/preference that motivates intentions and behaviors to express that value/preference” (1), is not … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: jmj2183{at}columbia.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1