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just out of curiosity, did you attend an academically-intense high school? if so, then perhaps people weren't as obsessed with popularity because there was so
by pgbovine 17y ago
just out of curiosity, did you attend an academically-intense high school? if so, then perhaps people weren't as obsessed with popularity because there was so much competition to get the highest grades and into the best colleges. but i would imagine that even in an intense school, there would still be athletes, cheerleaders, etc. (maybe the effect of popularity isn't as pronounced, though)
- derefr 17y agoPeople need to rank others; they need a contest of some sort. A popularity contest is simply the broken positive feedback loop that's left when no valid comparison function can be found. In a school where everyone takes academics seriously, there's no need for popularity, because there's a working well-ordering already established (i.e. Through grades.) Note that, unlike having a low ranking in a popularity contest, having a low meritocratic ranking isn't that bad for you, socially; although people like to rank others, they don't particularly care about the ranks once they're established. This is why popularity contests make people behave badly: since there's positive feedback, your ranking can change severely without any effort on your part—and you then start caring again, to get it stabilized.