Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, Vol 10(4), Dec 2023, 368-380; doi:10.1037/cns0000226
We explored how the personality trait of grit (i.e., dedication to the attainment of a long-term goal) relates to individual differences in peoples’ self-reported attentiveness, particularly with a focus on the experience of flow (i.e., deep, effortless concentration). We replicated prior work showing a negative relation between grit and inattention (e.g., mind wandering), even while controlling for the trait of conscientiousness. More importantly, we found a positive relation between grit and the experience of deep, effortless concentration such that those who have more grit tend to experience more frequent bouts of deep, effortless concentration (i.e., flow). In addition, grit (particularly the consistency of interest factor) was uniquely predicted by the experience of deep, effortless concentration over and above a measure of conscientiousness. These findings suggest that grit has a robust relation to measures of attention in everyday life, and that the experience of flow is related to long-term goal completion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)