"College students face busy schedules while still showing great persistence to push through stress. The current study examined the effect of task complexity and indirect peer-influenced stress on persistence in college students. Participants completed either a 49- or 99-piece puzzle, the operationalization of task complexity, and were told that either 90% or 50% of their peers had completed the same puzzle in the 5-minute period, the operationalization of peer-influenced stress. At the end of the time period, the participants were offered an additional minute, and were allowed up to three additional minutes, to examine persistence. There were no significant interaction effects found between the three variables, but there was a moderately significant relationship found between task complexity and persistence. This study helps to fill gaps in literature found for the relationship between peer influence and persistence, as well as the interaction between the three variables."