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Upward assimilation in social comparison should be defined as “ an increase in the comparer’s self-evaluation on a dimension as a result of comparing with someone better on that dimension.” Current research does not always hew to this definition, confuses reflection in the Self Evaluation Maintenance model (Tesser, 1988) with assimilation, uses dependent variables other than self-evaluation, and frequently lacks adequate control conditions to understand where the action is. As a result, progress is not as great as it could be. We make suggestions for bringing more order to this relatively new and terribly important topic.