It probably doesn't help that status popularity is the idea that's reinforced by popular media — like Mean Girls and 16 Candles and every single movie or series about high school since the beginning of time, right?

"Totally: About 30% of those who are the most popular — how we think about it in high school — are also very well liked; it’s possible for [likability and status] to go together. But more often they don’t. From our own high school experiences and from the media, we are really focused on that [status] popularity. But that’s not the type that existed before high school, or the type that matters after. It comes really natural to young kids to care about [the likable] kind of popularity; the other kind doesn’t really exist at all until adolescence. It's really interesting that there’s a type of popularity that’s inborn, and then a type we come to care about which comes online in those middle school and high school years, and then suddenly dominates our perception of the whole concept."