A new study has found that mean girls are the most popular particularly in schools, despite making life miserable for some of their other mates.

"A lot of popular kids may not be well liked, but they are relationally aggressive and their peers think that they're popular," lead researcher Prof Casey Borch was quoted by 'The Sunday Telegraph' as saying.

In fact, according to Prof Borch of the University of Alabama, girls are more likely to use this bullying behaviour than boys in schools as they think that being nasty can boost their "social visibility".

In their study, the researchers surveyed more than 600 boys and girls, aged between nine and 18. The respondents were asked to rate their school's cliques on popularity.

They found that bullying and physical aggression in the school helped in gaining popularity in the earlier grades but membership in physically aggressive cliques declined as the children got older.

However, membership in groups where students gossipped, spread nasty rumours and excluded others remained constant and even increased the perceived popularity and social visibility of the students in cliques.