The option that best describes a central idea of the text is "The pressure to conform or ‘be popular’ with one’s peers may negatively affect "
Explanation:
The article "Students’ Work Ethic Affected by Peer Groups, Desire to Be Popular " By Shankar Vedantam presents the results of a social experiment performed among some students to monitor their reactions when they have to face peer pressure as they are offered an opportunity of becoming better academically speaking, and how the results projected negative reactions from some of them as they wanted to be like the rest and don't be noticed for being academically brilliant.