This study examines how induced negative arousal influences the consolidation of fragile sensory inputs into durable working memory (WM) representations. Participants performed a visual WM change detection task with different amounts of encoding time manipulated by random pattern masks inserted at different levels of memory-and-mask Stimulus-Onset-Asynchrony (SOA). Prior to the WM task, negative or neutral emotion was induced using audio clips from the International Affective Digital Sounds (IADS). Pupillometry was simultaneously recorded to provide an objective measure of induced arousal. Self-report measures of early-life stress (i.e., adverse childhood experiences) and current mood states (i.e., depressed mood and anxious feeling) were also collected as covariates. We find that participants encode more items into WM at a longer memory-and-mask SOA under induced negative arousal, while their performance at a shorter memory-and-mask SOA or no mask conditions is highly comparable between negative and neutral conditions. These findings suggest that induced negative arousal can speed up WM consolidation. Furthermore, this emotional effect on WM consolidation speed is moderated by key affect-related individual differences. Participants who have greater pupil responses to negative IADS sounds or have more early-life stress show faster WM consolidation under induced negative arousal. Collectively, our findings reveal a critical role of phasic adrenergic responses in the rapid consolidation of visual WM content and the potential moderators of this association.