ABSTRACT
The social comparisons provide standards for one's own behavior, opinions, presumptions or values. The selection of role model groups also takes place on the basis of similarly normative conceptions, presumptions, capabilities or purchasing power. People's needs to assess abilities, performance and convictions, and the related degree of aspiration are that originates from it, is the subject of Festinger's theory of social comparisons, a theory that, despite its age, has not lost its relevance. The choice of behavioral strategies depends on perceived discrepancies as far as subjectively experienced probabilities of success are concerned; there arises the possibility of communicating the probabilities of success within the context of marketing and personnel policy measures. Social comparisons play a particularly essential role in the commission systems often found in sales. The professional confute assumption that the commission system features the advantage of a performance incentive with an unlimited upper limit.
