the 'crabs in a barrel' reaction (pulling down anyone who stuck out for estimable reasons) was parallel to the 'the smarter the better' reaction, when I was growing up...people kind of chose which path was the most comfortable...

I hear about this and I certainly see it on TV, but in my schools it just wasn't the done thing.  The "nerds" were popular.  The cheerleaders were all GATE/honors students (you did have to maintain a 3.0 GPA to participate in any extracurricular activity).  During pep rallies, there were awards handed out to the 4 science geeks who took it upon themselves to do an experiment for something not school related.  I got an award once for reading the most books from our library in one semester.  We had special award ceremonies for kids who got straight As on all their tests or had perfect attendance.  Hell, my school gave letterman jackets for academic achievements.  If you went to my high school, you'd think there was a ton of jocks on campus.  I had one friend who got a jacket for starting up an Amnesty International club on-campus.