The general comparative-processing model of self-perception (Morina, 2021) proposes that the outcome of a comparison between a target and standard is evaluated against its motivational meaning and may engender different emotional, cognitive and behavioral responses. Specifically, it predicts that a comparison outcome evaluated as threatening will lead to pessimistic coping, which entails elevated negative affect and cognitive responses such as distraction, rededication (i.e., deeming the task outcome as unimportant) or reconstrual (i.e., attributing the task outcome to external factors), which may lead to avoidance. In contrast, a comparison outcome evaluated as rather challenging should lead to optimistic coping, excitement and commitment to improve behavior and behavior maintenance. To test this experimentally, participants performed a 2-back task, which was introduced as a predictor of academic performance. Participants were randomly assigned to either a high (n = 77) or low (n = 74) threat condition, in which they received false performance-related social comparison feedback. The main outcome variables were affect and cognitive orientation (i.e., questionnaires) as well as behavior (i.e., option to repeat the task). As predicted, the high threat group showed a larger increase in negative affect and a larger decrease in positive affect than the low threat group after the task. Concerning cognitive orientation, the high threat group showed more rededication and less commitment than the low threat group. However, this latter finding did not transfer to behavior as no between-group differences in repeating the task were observed. Possible reasons for this and future directions will be discussed.