Abstract: Social comparisons influence self-evaluations in multiple ways. Sometimes self-evaluations are assimilated toward a given standard. At other times, they are contrasted away from the standard. The paper systematically reviewed the researches on the contrast and assimilation effect of social comparisons. At the same time, we expatiated the moderators of the social comparison effects. Finally, from an integrative perspective we expatiated the psychological mechanism of contrast and assimilation effect—selective accessibility model

Key words: social comparison, contrast effect, assimilation effect