No matter where you live, the personality traits that make someone “cool” appear to be consistent across countries, according to the study, published this month in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
The researchers found that, compared with people considered to be “good” or “favorable,” those considered “cool” are perceived to be more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous.
[…] Regardless of whether it’s China or Korea or Chile or the US, people like people who are pushing boundaries and sparking change,” he said. “So I would say that coolness really represents something more fundamental than the actual label of coolness.”
The researchers – from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, the University of Arizona and the University of Georgia – conducted experiments from 2018 to 2022 with nearly 6,000 people across a dozen countries: Australia, Chile, China, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United States.
Let me stop right here. I can’t think of anything more uncool than doing a study to find out what cool means. But anyway…
[…] The study participants consistently associated being calm, conscientious, universalistic, agreeable, warm, secure, traditional and conforming with being a good person, more than with being a cool person. Being capable was considered to be both “cool” and “good” but not distinctly either. But the formula for being “cool” was having the six character traits – more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous – no matter the person’s age, gender or education level.
[…] A limitation of the research was that only people who understood what “cool” means were included in the study. Pezzuti said it would be interesting – but difficult – to determine whether the findings would be similar among more traditional cultures or remote groups of people who may be less familiar with the term.
But if the study were about determining what cool means, then how could they tell the people in the study actually knew what cool means?
[…] When asked to think of a public figure or celebrity who embodies “coolness” based on his research, Pezzuti immediately said Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
“He’s a controversial figure, but someone who comes to my mind is Elon Musk,” Pezzuti said, adding that he checks all the boxes of the six attributes identified in the study.
Musk is “undeniably powerful” and autonomous, he said, and appears to be extroverted due to his presence on social media platforms and in the media.
“I hear that he’s timid, maybe more timid than he seems, but from an outsider, he seems very extroverted. He’s entertaining. He’s on podcasts and always in front of cameras,” Pezzuti explained.
Some of Musk’s behaviour also appears to be hedonistic, he said. “He smoked marijuana on the most popular podcast in the world, The Joe Rogan Experience.”
And Pezzuti added that Musk’s ideas about colonising Mars show him to be open and adventurous.
Musk? Cool? Meh.
Let’s see. According to the study the six characteristics of coolness are being more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous.
Which means if you don’t have any of those characteristics you’re not cool.
The one person who personifies coolness without a doubt is of course Arthur Fonzarelli, aka ‘The Fonz’, from Happy Days. Sure, I admit, he ticks a lot of the boxes, but hedonism? I don’t think so.
Then there’s Marsellus Wallace. Crime lord, and definitely cool. But open? I don’t think so.
Then there’s Jules Winnfield played by the equally cool Samuel L Jackson. Hedonistic? Open? I don’t think so.
Actually if they researchers wanted to know what cool is they should have just asked Quentin Tarantino, who I’m afraid to say isn’t cool, as in cool cool, but definitely knows what cool is.
Here’s a photo of my cat. He is without a doubt awesomely cool.
Me? Well, since I write for the Good Oil that by definition makes me cool, even if I might not tick any of the boxes.
And yes, since you read the Good Oil, you are also, by definition, cool.
[…] Future research in this space could evaluate coolness in tandem with goodness and badness rather than in isolation from it, said Jon Freeman, an associate professor of psychology at Columbia University.
[…] “‘Cool’ is deeply ingrained in our social vocabulary because it serves as a shorthand for complex inferences. It encapsulates signals of status, affiliation, and identity in ways that are instantaneous yet deeply stereotyped. From a scientific perspective, studying coolness is important precisely because it reveals how rapid, schematic trait inferences influence behavior and social dynamics, especially in the age of social media and influencer culture.
And if you understood all that, you’re definitely not cool.
Source: https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/wellbeing/cool-people-tend-to-have-these-six-things-in-common-study-finds
