Previous attempts to study the effect of sad mood on inhibitory control have not led to consistent results in clinical and non-clinical populations. We suggested that inconsistent results may have been caused by different task situations, different qualities of the experienced sad mood, and disregarding the possible effects of confounding factors such as gender and age differences. To fill in the gaps of previous studies, we recruited 30 male and 30 female participants aged between 20 to 27.

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... y were randomly assigned to one of the sad or neutral mood groups. The music mood induction procedure was used to induce the sad mood state, while participants in the neutral mood group listened to some neutral audio materials. After mood manipulation, participants completed the color-word Stroop task. We observed that participants' inhibitory control performance was not influenced by any of the fleeting sad mood states or gender differences. We discussed possible reasons behind the findings.