Why are the "bad kids" the most popular?

I work at a school, and at work today there was a kid who completely blew up at my boss. He started swearing, and screaming, and refused to calm down.

Of course, I deal with temper tantrums all the time. Thats not really what bothers me. Afterwards, when everyone was calmed down, the other kids started to ask him for his autograph. Yes, his autograph.

I thought it was really sad that the kids were looking up to the kid that was misbehaving. Why do kids do that? Its never the nice, respectful kids that has the most friends. Is this just elementary school level kids? does this happen all the time, or am I over reacting?