I believe it is partly influenced by culture and partly from game theoretical competition. In Asia, smart people are usually admired. Smart kids are quite popu

I believe it is partly influenced by culture and partly from game theoretical competition. In Asia, smart people are usually admired. Smart kids are quite popular in many schools, or at least admired by their peers. There is sometimes a certain amount of jealousy too but generally they are well accepted and act as tutor for their friends and leaders in group projects. In office and colleges where competition among peers is intense and zero-sum, jealousy overtakes admiration. In other situations, the culture of collaboration and a certain amount of plagiarism (which is probably more prevalent in Asia than the US) lead to quite a bit of respect from peers to smart kids/people.