Subclinical depression (dysphoria) is characterised by a loss of interest, or pleasure in regular activities (anhedonia). This characteristic is understood to hinder reward anticipation. Contemporary research exploring this tests normally rewarding stimuli which does not specifically account for context. In particular, how meaningful the incentive is for the dysphorics. We hypothesised dysphorics would be willing to work in anticipation of a meaningful reward but not to obtain a reward that is normally incentivising for nondysphorics. To test this 82 psychology undergraduates (M = 20.96 years) participated in a reinforcement paradigm behavioural computer task to obtain two such rewards (social and money). We assessed reward anticipation by measuring task persistence. Our findings support an association between increased depressive symptoms and reduced willingness to work for the monetary but not social reward. By accounting for context, our findings contribute to understanding about the reward functioning of dysphorics with implications for therapeutic relief.