Summary

At the beginning of this chapter, Duckworth poses the question of whether grit is inherited. The short answer is in part. Duckworth explores the idea that grit is both genetic and influenced by experience, as are many of our traits. Duckworth then explores the ways in which talent is also both genetic and influenced by nature and uses the example of swimming at a competitive level. The answer is that both nature and nurture effect talent. Next, she explains that the heritability of perseverance was determined be 37% by administering the grit scale to twins, while the heritability of passion was 20%. This is similar to the heritability rates of other traits. Like other traits, grit is polygenetic, or determined by more than one gene. Duckworth also explains that heritability explains how an individual differs from the average but does not explain...