A noteworthy problem for theories of mood is crosslinguistic and in- tralinguistic variation, and one of the most prominent challenges is the ability of epistemic/doxastic predicates like ‘believe’ to take subjunctive complements in Italian and other languages. This paper argues that the subjunctive is not a purely dependent element or mere bearer of presuppo- sitions, but rather has intrinsic semantic content. Specifically, we propose that the subjunctive has a comparative meaning. It applies to two modal backgrounds, imposing a comparative relation on one and using the other to give the interpretation of that relation. Depending on the situation, the comparison can be lead to a preferential, directive, or evidential meaning. It is the evidential meaning we see in cases of subjunctive under ‘believe’ in Italian. We present experimental data showing the association of indica- tive and subjunctive in combination with ‘believe’ in Italian with distinct pragmatic profiles. Subjunctive is associated with contexts in which the complement proposition is at issue in the conversation and, as we show, it signals that the belief statement is to be taken as support for this proposition in the global context. We also explain the contrast with French, which does not allow subjunctive with ‘believe’, and extend the analysis to other predicates that show variation in Italian.