Beware Of Popular Kids Bearing Gifts: A Framed Field Experiment - Jignan Chen, Daniel Houser, Natalia Montinari, And Marco Piovesan (Interdisciplinary Center For Economic Science, George Mason University) Page 5
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34II. Related Literature
Popularity typically refers to degree of likability and the level of support from the peers.
For our purposes below, we will say that a person is more popular if more of her peers
desire to be in her company. There are many factors closely associated with popularity,
including physical appearance, personal charisma, specific skills or achievements that are
more narrowly acknowledged, to more general societal appreciation (see, for example,
Zwaan et al., 2013). Additionally, popularity is closely related to status, which refers to a
hierarchy that is socially recognized: status can confer popularity (e.g., high achieving
athletes gain popularity through excellence in sports performances; socialites obtain
popularity through acclaimed family background). Popularity can also give rise to status
(e.g., homecoming king/queen or elected president). Indeed, in some cases, scholars from
sociology use status and popularity interchangeably (i.e., popularity is defined as a form
of social status) (e.g., Cillessen & Lansu, 2011).
A large literature investigates the economic consequences of popularity or status. Key
findings are that those with higher status seize a greater share of the surplus (Ball &
Eckel, 2001) and enjoy wage premium later in life (Conti et al., 2013); and status seeking
behaviors generally result in a less productive use of resources and lower welfare
(Abbink et al., 2011; Bolle et al., 2010; Charness et al., 2013; Congleton, 1989;
Fershtman & Weiss, 1993; Zizzo & Oswald, 2001; Zizzo, 2003). At the same time,
psychologists have shown that popularity impacts people’s childhood, adolescence and
adulthood, in that being unpopular is usually associated with adverse behaviors, poor
academic or work performance, and poor psychological health (for example, Kozlowski
& Bell, 2003; Newcomb et al., 1993; Schwartz, 2000; Scott & Judge, 2009). In addition,
being popular can lead to large fortunes. For example, celebrity endorsements are
common practice in consumer business: Beyonce recently signed an endorsement deal
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with Pepsi for $50 million dollars
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For more stories about the celebrity endorsement deals, please refer to
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