Individuals' level of depression has been shown to systematically determine their amount of effort related cardiovascular reactivity (see Brinkmann and Gendolla in Motiv Emot, 31:71–82, 2007; J Pers Soc Psychol, 94:146–157, 2008). By means of a mood cue manipulation the present study aimed at providing a conclusive test whether this is due to the informational impact of depressed mood. After habituation, students with low versus high depression scores worked on a memory task under ‘‘do-your-best'' instructions. Half of them received a cue before the task, suggesting that their current mood may have an impact during task performance. As expected, dysphoric participants showed higher systolic blood pressure reactivity during task performance than nondysphorics when no cue was given. This pattern was reversed in the cue condition, indicating that dysphorics effectively managed to reduce the depressive mood impact on their task demand appraisals and effort mobilization