They measured "persistence" by seeing how long people would try to solve an allegedly impossible anagram - "OCHERSTE". But anyone capable of googling for [anagram solver] should be able to see there is a solution to that anagram - "trochees".
Not that it invalidates the study or anything. Just funny that between the European Journal of Social Psychology and the canada.com reporter nobody thought to check if the impossible anagram was actually impossible ;-)
I think the word impossible was used loosely. Because I can honestly say that I very well could have lived my life never having heard of the word 'trochees'.
anagram solver:
http://www.ssynth.co.uk/~gay/cgi-bin/nph-an?line=rocheste...
wikipedia on trochees:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trochee
Not that it invalidates the study or anything. Just funny that between the European Journal of Social Psychology and the canada.com reporter nobody thought to check if the impossible anagram was actually impossible ;-)