Individual differences in exploration and persistence: Grit and beliefs about ability and reward

Abstract

The tradeoff between knowing when to seek greater rewards (exploration), and knowing when to settle (exploitation), is critical to success. One dispositional factor that may modulate this tradeoff is “grit.” Gritty individuals tend to persist in the face of difficulty and consequently experience greater life success. It is possible that they may also experience a greater tendency to explore in a reward task. However, although most exploration/exploitation tasks manipulate beliefs about the presence/magnitude of rewards in the environment, the belief of one’s ability to actually achieve a reward is also critical. As such, we investigated whether individuals higher in grit were more likely to explore, and how beliefs about the magnitude/presence of rewards, and the perceived ability to achieve a reward, modulated their exploration tendencies. Over two experiments, participants completed 4 different exploration/persistence tasks: two that tapped into participant beliefs about the presence/magnitude of rewards, and two that tapped into participant beliefs about their ability to achieve a reward. Participants also completed measures of dispositional grit (Experiment 1a and 1b), conscientiousness (Experiment 1b), and working memory (Experiment 1a and 1b). In both experiments, we found a relationship between the two “belief of rewards” tasks, as well as between the two “belief of ability” tasks, but performance was unrelated across the two types of task. We also found that dispositional grit was strongly associated with greater exploration, but only on the “belief of ability” tasks. Finally, in Experiment 1b we showed that conscientiousness better predicted exploration on the “belief of ability” tasks than grit, suggesting that it is not grittiness per se that is associated with exploration. Overall, our findings showed that individuals high in grit/conscientiousness are more likely to explore, but only when there is a known reward available that they believe they have the ability to achieve.

Association between Behavioral Ambidexterity and Brain Health

“…Additionally, our results demonstrated a positive association between GM-BHQ and self-efficacy (i.e., confidence in one's ability to achieve a desired outcome) [32], contradicting our hypothesis depicted in Figure 1. However, previous experimental research has indicated positive effects of self-efficacy on both exploration and exploitation [53], which is similar to the association between grit and exploration found by Dale et al [17]. In support, self-efficacy was associated with better performance in studies [33], sport [34], work [35,59], and health-promoting behaviors involving dietary habits and exercise [36], medication adherence [60], and patients' mental and physical health [61].…”

“…By extension, another experimental study reported a link between grit and exploration, demonstrating that individuals higher in grit were more likely to persist with an impossible task [17]. Similarly, other research has indicated positive effects of self-efficacy on both exploration and exploitation [53].…”

“…Here, curiosity-the desire to learn about what is unknown [14]-and grit-the ability to persevere with a task for a long period of time until it is mastered [15]-refer to proximities of exploitation and exploration, respectively. In fact, previous research supports this approximation, indicating a linkage between curiosity and exploration behavior [16], and grit with exploration and exploitation behaviors [17]. This is because curiosity is related to the intrinsic motivation to learn [18] and has been found to be a significant predictor of occupational/workplace behavior such as job performance [19] and worker innovation [20].…”

“…Thus, the analysis included 200 participants (97 females, 103 males), 20-68 years of age (mean ± standard deviation (SD) age, 44.4 ± 12.2 years). This study was approved by the Ethics Committees of Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan; approval number 27-P-13), the University of Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan; approval number 402-2), and the Riken National Science Institute (Wakō, Saitama Prefecture, Japan; approval number [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] and performed in accordance with the guidelines and regulations of the institute(s). All participants provided written informed consent before participation, and participant anonymity was preserved.…”

Introducing a Mindset Intervention to Improve Student Success

“…Research by Flaming and Granato (2017) found that grit levels have a direct relationship between overcoming adversity and perseverance. Further, two experiments by Dale, Sampers, Loo, and Green (2018) concluded that the choice to continue forward or cease activities can largely be predicted by differences in grit: individuals higher in grit are more likely to persist in challenging tasks. This relationship; however, was only observed when a known reward was available that the participants believed that they had the ability to achieve.…”