After habituation, participants were first induced into negative vs. positive moods and performed then an attention task with either low vs. high hedonic instrumentality of success. In the high-instrumentality condition participants expected to see a funny movie after success and an unpleasant movie after failure; in the low-instrumentality condition participants expected an unpleasant movie after success and a pleasant movie after failure. Effort-related cardiovascular response (ICG, blood pressure) was assessed during mood inductions and task performance. As predicted by the mood-behavior-model (Gendolla, 2000), responses of cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) and systolic blood pressure were stronger in the high-instrumentality/negative-mood condition than in the other three cells. Here the high hedonic instrumentality of success justified the high effort that was perceived as necessary in a negative mood. Moreover, the PEP effects indicate that cardiovascular response was driven by beta-adrenergic impact on the heart rather than by vascular adjustments.