From the entrance of high school and even before, students exhibit a high sensitivity to status and popularity among peers. They are exposed to the judgment of others and the resulting placement in the hierarchical order in the school system every day. Throughout school days, there is an overall intensified reliance on peers who play an essential role in the socializing process guiding individuals into the adult world. Thus, as sociologist Jan Dijkstra from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands aptly summarizes, the achievement of a certain degree of popularity and the aspiration for affection are the two main social goals throughout adolescence. Many young people even put these goals before the actual mission of school of providing the learners academic education.

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Although popularity is a generally commonly used term, there is no clear definition that would include all the criteria that constitute it. Psychologist Antonius H. N. Cillessen from the Behavioural Science Institute at Radboud University in Nijmegen in the Netherlands refers to group formation and functioning to explain the construct of popularity:  People, or especially students in our case, who exhibit the ability to make their group reach the three goals cohesion, homogeneity and harmony as well as change and evolution are considered the most popular ones. Furthermore, Cillessen highlights the connection between popularity and status. Students can acquire a high position in the hierarchical school system especially through the support of their clique and the high esteem of that clique in the peer system. Thus, strong support as well as comfort, companionship and enhancement of one’s sense of worth by the group are essential for popular children to achieve and maintain status. It becomes evident that there is a mutual dependence between the group itself and the most popular members who are usually the leaders: While the key members make the group stick together, determine the norms, lead and represent their clique often by aspiring after maximum visibility, they cannot do so without the support and acceptance of the other members. According to Cillessen, “popularity is a form of status. As a form of status, it is a form of power”.

This leads to another key criterion of popularity which is the influential power over others. Popular students have the ability to either obviously or subconsciously control the behaviors and attitudes of their peers. Marlene Sandstrom, Professor of Psychology at Williams College in the USA, regards students as popular who determine the ‘social agenda’ for their peers and define the norms of what is considered acceptable in the group and what is opposed. She refers to several researchers who assume that possessing power leads to the enhancement of popularity rather than the other way around. The British Journal of Developmental Psychology reports that there is a tendency that children who are highly empathetic and, thus, know what others are thinking and how they are feeling are more popular among their peers. They often apply this ability in order to either perform kind acts or to manipulate to their advantage depending on whether the other is considered a supporter or a threat. Beneath social skills, however, people on a forum also reported that they experienced that having some particular talent especially being outstandingly good at some kind of ‘cool’ sports like basketball or football as well as being extrovert and handsome or pretty are criteria that foster popularity at high school.

In the social system of school, there are usually cliques which are more popular than others. Researchers found that about one third of younger students will be part of the popular groups while one tenth of them, the so called ‘hangers-on’, will be attempting to become part of these groups. Another ten percent will be loners who do not engage in the striving for influence and popularity. Prof. B. Bradford Brown, who is a Faculty Associate in the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research, states that throughout the peer system there is strong peer pressure to meet generally defined standards. Students learn quickly that divergence from the norm leads to exclusion from the clique which can result in bullying. Students then exploit their sometimes physical but in particular social power to repeatedly cause harm to outsiders. They develop aggressive behavior to suppress others and thereby maintain and gain even more popularity, status and power over their peers. According to Gabriel Merrin, a Doctor of Philosophy who works at the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Texas Tech University, students who engage a lot in bullying are usually the most popular ones. Nevertheless, those who exhibit the most frequent and violent bullying behavior struggle to build friendships so the effect is not linear. On the part of the victims, truancy, depression, anxiety and even suicidality can be consequences of the permanent exposition to bullying.

The “Student Reports of Bullying: Results from the 2015 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey” investigated the topic bullying especially in American high schools in more detail by collecting information about student and school characteristics on a national level. The study shows the extent to which students with different qualities reported being bullied. Based on a sample of over 24 million 12 to 18 year-old students, 20.8 percent, which is approximately equivalent to every fifth student, reported being bullied in the school year 2014-2015. Comparing different school types, the study discovered that there was a peek of bullying behaviors in middle school with 25.9 percent of all students  who reported that they were being bullied. However, in high schools bullying was still mentioned by 18.9 percent of all students. The most common type of bullying was making fun of the victim, calling names or insulting him or her (13.3 percent) which was closely followed by spreading rumors (12.2 percent). Whereas 5 percent of all bullying victims were excluded from activities on purpose, fewer were threatened with physical harm (3.9 percent). Among the students who reported being bullied, the hallway or a stairwell was  listed as the most common location for bullying to take place (41.7 percent), followed by the classroom (33.6 percent) and the cafeteria at school (22.2 percent). 19.3 percent of all victims reported being bullied outside of school grounds.

However, being popular raises problems as well. Cillessen argues that popular students are continuously under pressure to maintain their position within the group and as a group within the peer system and therefore have to adhere closely to the norms. Furthermore, as pointed out before the position of the leader of a clique goes along with great responsibility and effort. This can cause a kind of stress that many adolescents cannot handle and that hence negatively affects their health as well as their school achievements. Another downside of popularity is that everyone tries to fit in into this system defined by the peers with the highest status without critically calling their behaviors and attitudes into question. They have the power to influence and to shape the peer system with its norms and values and thus can be hold accountable for deviance from school regulations. As already mentioned before, antisocial behavior, often accompanied by aggression and manipulation, as well as the degradation of those who do not fit the general standards is frequently observed in popular adolescents.

In general, there are various extensive studies that deal with the field of popularity in schools. However, as Sandstrom summarizes, our current knowledge about it is still rather limited. Research has to investigate, for instance, the mechanistic processes popular peers apply to influence their fellow students. Moreover, it has not yet been resolved in detail why there are children who are more powerful and influential than others. A last question that Sandstrom addresses is about certain kinds of peer influence and when they exhibit their strongest effects. Thus, there is still a wide range of unanswered questions about popularity that have to be examined in following studies.

Daniella Damigella, a Professor of Educational Sciences and Orazio Licciardello, a Professor of Social Psychology, both from the University of Catania, think that human beings tend to group people based on their similarities according to certain characteristics and therefore believe that human beings divide the world into categories. Furthermore, they state that stereotypes and prejudices are related to personal experiences as well as social learning dynamics which took place in different contexts, as for example in peer groups or in school. This is why they argue that stereotypes and prejudices are based on the above mentioned social categorization process. Hence, they conclude that textbooks are a vehicle for stereotypes.

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