Why schools have Regina Georges, while some have none

We’ve all seen “Mean Girls” (What, you haven’t? You can’t sit with us.), and have experienced the effects of cliques in our own lives back in school. According to a study, some schools are more likely to have cliques than others. Researchers led by education professor Daniel McFarland found out that “school that offer students more choice – more elective courses, more ways to complete requirements, a bigger range of potential friends, more freedom to select seats in a classroom – are more likely to be rank-ordered, cliquish, and segregated.” In other words, the size, organizational structure, and academic systems of a school help determine whether students form their own version of The Plastics or not.

Read more on “The Science of Us” in NYmag.com; The Washington Post; and Stanford University.