Favored outgroup can eliminate the ingroup reference effect

Studies have found that, consistent with the ingroup favoritism effect, the recollection of ingroup related information is better than that of outgroup related information. This study explores whether preferred outgroup can eliminate the ingroup reference effect. Using the university as the reference group, Experiment 1 was designed to verify the group reference effect when there was no outgroup favoritism, and Experiment 2 examined the impact of outgroup favoritism on the group-reference effect. Experiment 1 found that recognition rates in the ingroup-reference condition were significantly higher than in the outgroup reference condition. Experiment 2 found no significant difference between recognition rates in the ingroup- reference and outgroup-reference conditions. Using household registration to classify the reference group, Experiment 3 recruited participants from rural areas to verify the group-reference effect while Experiment 4 recruited students from rural areas with a preference toward urban areas to explore the impact of outgroup favoritism on the group-reference effect. The results are the same as those in the Experiment 1 and Experiment 2. These findings suggest that the ingroup reference effect disappears when outgroups are preferred groups.