Research indicates that effortful performances are reduced when participants cannot be evaluated, relative to when they can be evaluated. It was hypothesized that mood would interact with goals to attenuate such reductions in performance. As predicted, when participants' goal was to do as much as they could, those in negative moods put forth more effort and persisted longer than those in positive moods and performed equally well whether or not they could be evaluated. In contrast, as predicted, when participants' goal was to continue until they no longer enjoyed the task, those in positive moods put forth more effort and persisted longer than those in negative moods; no-evaluation and evaluation conditions did not differ. For those in positive moods asked to do as much as they could and those in negative moods asked to continue until they no longer enjoyed the task, no-evaluation participants performed worse than evaluation participants.
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