Mean girls and bullies may sit at the top of the classroom pecking order in Hollywood, but a new study suggests in real life, kindness is linked to popularity among middle schoolers.
In "Kindness Counts: Prompting Prosocial Behavior in Preadolescents Boo...," researchers led by Kristin Layous, a psychologist at the University of California, Riverside, observed 415 students ages 9 to 11 in 19 classrooms in Vancouver, B.C., over four weeks. They began observations in the second half of the school year, when most students knew one another and friendships were more solidified.
