Washington: Popular students are more likely to torment their peers, says a new study.
"Our findings underscore that attaining and maintaining a high social status likely involves some level of antagonistic behaviour," said Robert Faris, assistant professor of sociology at University of California-Davis, the study co-author.
The study also finds that students in the top two percent of the school social hierarchy -- along with those at the bottom -- are the least aggressive, the journal American Sociological Review reports.
"The fact that they both have reduced levels of aggression is true, but it can be attributed to quite different things," Faris said, according to an university statement.
"The ones at the bottom don't have the social power or as much capacity to be aggressive whereas the ones at the top have all that power, but don't need to use it," Faris said.
The authors define aggression as being physical (hitting, shoving or kicking), verbal (name-calling or threats) or social (spreading rumours or ostracism).
Aggression rate was calculated based on the number of classmates a student victimised in the past three months.
The research studied 3,722 eighth, ninth and 10th grade students who participated during the 2004-05 school year.
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