Does the correlation between self and ingroup/outgroup depend on group favorability?

There is considerable evidence that predictions about others' behavior are anchored to comparable judgments about the self. There is also strong evidence that while self-judgments predict ingroup members' behavior more strongly than outgroup members, the correlation between self and group remains positive for both ingroups and outgroups (Robbins & Krueger, 2005). The present study examined two related questions. First, could the differences in correlation between self and ingroup versus outgroup be attributed to differences in group favorability? Second, would a negative correlation between self and outgroup be found for intensely disliked outgroups? Using an idiographic design that assessed self-group correlations for ingroups and outgroups ranging in favorability from highly disliked to highly liked, we found: (1) group favorability did not explain ingroup-outgroup differences; and (2) there was no evidence for a negative correlation between self and outgroups, even highly disliked outgroups. Discrepancies with earlier research are discussed. © The Author(s) 2010.