I. Introduction -- 1. A Selective History of Classic and Neo-Social Comparison Theory -- II. Foundations of Social Comparison -- 2. Interpreting and Inventing Social Reality: Attributional and Constructive Elements in Social Comparison -- 3. Stability of Related Attributes and the Inference of Ability through Social Comparison -- 4. "Can I Do X?": Using the Proxy Comparison Model to Predict Performance -- 5. Social Comparison and Influence in Groups -- 6. Opinion Comparison: The Role of the Corroborator, Expert, and Proxy in Social Influence -- 7. Self-Evaluation Maintenance and Evolution: Some Speculative Notes -- 8. Individual Differences in Social Comparison -- 9. Among the Better Ones: Upward Assimilation in Social Comparison -- 10. Assimilative and Contrastive Emotional Reactions to Upward and Downward Social Comparisons -- 11. Examining Social Comparisons with the Test Selection Measure: Opportunities for the Researcher and the Research Participant -- 12. Social Comparison: Lessons from Basic Research on Judgment -- 13. Consequences of Social Comparison: Selective Accessibility, Assimilation, and Contrast -- 14. Evaluating Social Comparison Targets -- 15. Social Comparison, Affiliation, and Emotional Contagion under Threat -- III. Related Social Phenomena -- 16. The Projective Perception of the Social World: A Building Block of Social Comparison Processes -- 17. Social Judgment as Implicit Social Comparison -- 18. Comparing Comparisons: An Integrative Perspective on Social Comparison and Counterfactual Thinking -- IV. Applications -- 19. Social Identity and Social Comparison -- 20. Social Comparison and Fairness: A Counterfactual Simulations Perspective -- 21. Social Comparison Processes in Health and Illness -- V. Commentary -- 22. Toward an Enlightenment in Social Comparison Theory: Moving beyond Classic and Renaissance Approaches.