Popularity remains important among young adults too. 'Not just something for children.'

Popularity remains important among young adults too. 'Not just something for children.'

For children and adolescents, it is often important to be popular or liked. But young adults also appear to attach importance to how they are perceived within the group. "If you think you are popular, we see this reflected in how you behave around strangers," says developmental psychologist Nina Chmielowice-Szymanski, who will defend her Ph.D. thesis on this topic at Radboud University on November 6.