And the higher a student's social status, the more likely they are to binge drink.

Those were the findings of a study of 1,595 students at a liberal arts college in the northeastern US in 2009 that were presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Denver.

The results could help explain why boozing it up is happening consistently on some college campuses - because the cool kids do it.

"Binge drinking is a symbolic proxy for high status in college," said study co-author Carolyn L. Hsu, a professor of sociology at Colgate University.

"It's what the most powerful, wealthy, and happy students on campus do. This may explain why it's such a desirable activity."

Lower-status students - defined in the study as those who were less wealthy, were female or who didn't belong to a fraternity or sorority - binge drink to fit in and tap into the benefits and the social satisfaction their peers from high-status groups enjoy, she said.

Binge drinking for the study was defined as consuming four drinks at a time for women for five drinks a session for men. In the study, the average binge drinker said they downed 13.7 drinks per week compared to 4.2 drinks per week for their more sober counterparts.

The results could help public health professionals and college administrators design programs to help students who binge drink, the study's authors said.