In addition, Phillipsen (1999) found that friendships between low-accepted or less popular individuals are more likely to be characterized by less sensitive interactions than are friendships between more popular individuals. The author attributes the association between peer status and empathic response in friendships to the negative influence of the entire peer group on less-popular youths' social skills. Less popular youth tend to get picked on by peers more often than do more popular youth, which ultimately has a negative influence on their social skills, including empathy. Less popular youth then use those deficient social skills when interacting with their equally unpopular friends (Phillipsen, 1999).