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USA Today
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Are Richard Branson, Elon Musk 'cool?' Researchers may have figured it out.
Hip. Popular. The cat's pajamas. What makes some people 'cool' and others not? A group of researchers nailed down six characteristics commonly found in individuals that most people around the world considered "cool." The study, published on June 30 by the American Psychological Association, asked survey respondents in 13 cultural regions to identify who they thought was cool, not cool, good and not good, and rate the person's personality and values. Participants were from the U.S., Australia, Germany, Spain, Turkey, Mexico, Chile, India, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, South Africa and Nigeria. People who were considered 'cool' were universally perceived as more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous, according to the study. On the other hand, 'good' people were perceived as more conforming, traditional, secure, warm, agreeable, universalistic, conscientious and calm. While 'cool' and 'good' people aren't always the same, some traits may overlap, said co-lead researcher Caleb Warren, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Arizona. Rocket launch on Netflix: When is it and how to watch 'To be seen as cool, someone usually needs to be somewhat likable or admirable, which makes them similar to good people,' Warren said in a news release. 'However, cool people often have other traits that aren't necessarily considered 'good' in a moral sense, like being hedonistic and powerful.' Researchers identified British entrepreneur Richard Branson as "cool" for combining attributes, such as powerful and adventurous. Some of his 'cool' acts include visiting outer space, ballooning across the Atlantic and racing speedboats. They also said 'coolness' may depend on context. For example, tech billionaire Elon Musk may possess 'cool' attributes like powerful, hedonistic and autonomous. But investors and pundits did not think it was 'cool' when Musk smoked marijuana on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. On the other hand, the act may have seemed cool to college kids and people with countercultural ideologies, study authors said. Adrianna Rodriguez can be reached at adrodriguez@
CBC
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
What is the essence of cool? A global study narrows it down to 6 key traits
Cool is cool, no matter where you are in the world. That's the conclusion of a new study that surveyed nearly 6,000 people in 13 different countries about what makes a person cool, and found the answers to be surprisingly universal. "We wanted to [look at] the deeper characteristics associated with cool people. How do those change across cultures?" Caleb Warren, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Arizona, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "We found that, largely, they don't." The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology identifies six perceived traits associated with cool people: extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous. And "perceived" is the key word here. "Cool is an impression we have of others," Warren said. "And I think, like other impressions, we form these almost instantaneously." The difference between 'cool' and 'good' The researchers surveyed 5,943 people online between 2018 and 2022 in the United States, Australia, Chile, China, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey. They asked each participant to think of four specific people: someone cool, someone not cool, someone good, and someone not good. They then had the participants fill out questionnaires evaluating the personality traits of those people. "The question we wanted to ask in this research is: Is cool the same or just another way of saying you like someone, or you think they're good?" Warren said. "And so what we tried to do is distinguish cool people from good people." They found there is, indeed, some overlap between the two — but also some very big differences. Broadly, the authors say, good people were described as more agreeable, conforming, traditional, secure, warm, conscientious and calm. "Its not that being bad will make somebody cool," Warren said. "I think being different or distinct or counter-normative is … what ends up making people cool." 'One of the most important American cultural exports' Rebellion is and always has been at the very heart of cool, says author and professor Joel Dinerstein. "Contemporary cool owes everything to rebel counter-cultural movements, from Black jazz musicians to the [Beat Generation] to the punks," he told CBC in an email. Dinerstein has been teaching a class called "The History of Cool" for almost 20 years at Tulane University in New Orleans. He's also the author of The Origins of Cool and curated the National Portrait Gallery exhibit American Cool. He traces the origins of cool to the post-Second World War jazz scene, when Black musicians began "defying racism through language, style, and a nonchalant (cool) demeanour." In fact, he says, it was U.S. jazz saxophonist Lester Young who coined the modern usage of the word. Despite cool's distinctly American origins, Dinerstein wasn't at all surprised by the study's conclusion that cool is a universal concept. "Cool has been a global concept for more than a half-century," he said. "It is one of the most important American cultural exports, along with the nation's music and sports." Even the word "cool" has become universal across different languages, Warren said. "In our survey, we asked people about the word cool without trying to translate it," he said. "And so both the word and meaning have spread around the world, with the meaning largely intact." Is capitalism ruining cool? But as coolness spreads, does it lose its edge? The study's authors say that over the years, coolness has strayed from its counterculture origins and morphed into something "more mainstream" and "commercially friendly," with major brands like Pepsi and Nike turning it into a commodity. But Dinerstein isn't too worried. "I don't think corporate interests ever truly define cool as much as they, or the media, or certain lazy writers think," he said. Francis McAndrew — a social psychologist at Knox College and Illinois who has written about the concept of coolness —agrees. "I don't think that pop culture and advertising are creating the image of what it means to be cool as much as they are relentlessly reminding us about it to sell us stuff," he said. Ultimately, Warren says the value of coolness lies in its power to alter the status quo by raising the social status of people who "are able to move a culture forward by innovating or coming up with new ideas." It's also, he says, not easily manufactured. In a separate research project he's working on, he's found that people who actively try be cool are usually perceived as less cool.
Boston Globe
01-07-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
What Makes Someone Cool? A New Study Offers Clues.
The study, published Monday in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, surveyed nearly 6,000 participants from 12 countries around the world. Their beliefs about what's 'cool' were similar regardless of where the study participants lived, and despite differences in age, income level, education, or gender. 'What blew my mind was the fact that it was pretty much the same result everywhere,' said Caleb Warren, one of the authors of the study and a professor at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona who has researched consumer psychology for two decades. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up In the study, each participant had to recognize the word 'cool' in English, without translation, suggesting that they were already familiar with — or maybe even idolized — notions of coolness from wealthy Western countries like the United States. Advertisement In that sense, the study offers a window into the spread of cultural beliefs from one group of people to another, said Joseph Henrich, an anthropologist and a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University who was not involved in the study. 'Globally, American success has led to the diffusion of music styles and an immense amount of cultural content, including, apparently, the concept of cool,' Henrich said. Advertisement Coolness is not a widely studied subject. Past research has found that coolness is usually considered something positive: People who are cool are also friendly, competent, trendy, and attractive. But Warren and his colleagues wanted to know what makes a person distinctly 'cool' rather than just 'good.' So the researchers asked the participants to think of specific people: one who is cool, one who is not cool, one who is good, and one who is not good. Then they asked the participants to evaluate each person by answering questionnaires that collectively measured 15 different attributes. While the cool and good people had overlapping traits, compared with their cool counterparts, good people were perceived as more conforming, traditional, secure, warm, agreeable, universalistic (the extent to which a person sees everyone and everything as being equal or equally worthy of care and respect), conscientious, and calm. Those who were perceived as capable were equally considered cool and good. One limitation of the study was that anyone who did not know the word 'cool' was automatically filtered out. As a result, the data cannot determine how frequently the word is used in different countries or, whether in certain cultures, coolness will lead to a higher social status relative to others. In addition, while the study included participants with a wide range of ages, the population skewed young: The average age from each region was generally 30 or younger. Other studies have shown that there are important cultural differences that can affect the traits that we value. 'Factors like aggression make us have higher status in some Western cultures and simultaneously give us less status in the East,' said Mitch Prinstein, the chief of psychology at the American Psychological Association, who has written two books about popularity, which can be a consequence of coolness. Advertisement Research on coolness suggests that the desire to be cool is particularly strong during adolescence, and it influences not only what people buy or whom they admire, but also how they talk and what they do for fun. But what's considered cool by the broader culture might not be the same as what you personally believe is cool. This is why Warren and his colleagues asked each participant to think about the people they considered cool vs. good. Interestingly, across the board, the types of traits that are typically associated with kindness or helpfulness were more often perceived as good instead of cool. So is coolness a trait that's worth pursuing? To that end, Warren said, 'I have serious doubts.' Coolness that involves risk-taking and being socially precocious during adolescence may offer popularity during youth, but one study published in 2014 found that many teenagers who behaved in this way would later struggle in their 20s, developing problems with alcohol, drugs, and relationships. 'They are doing more extreme things to try to act cool,' one of the researchers told The New York Times. For the popular kids in school, 'status is dominance, visibility, attention,' Prinstein said. But, he added, it is how well-liked you are that contributes to long-term success. 'Even the most uncool kid will probably fare well if they have at least one close friend,' he added. Perhaps coolness -- particularly the dismissive 'too cool for school' variety -- isn't all it's cracked up to be. This article originally appeared in
New York Post
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Researchers determine the six attributes that make somebody cool — do you have them?
Researchers have scientifically defined coolness. The idea of coolness might seem subjective, but international researchers have revealed that there is a nearly-universal consensus on what it means to be hip. 'The meaning of cool has crystallized on a similar set of values and traits around the globe,' the researchers wrote in the too-cool-for-school study, which was published in the Journal Of Experimental Psychology. According to their research, 'cool' people are generally perceived as more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous. 'To be seen as cool, someone usually needs to be somewhat likable or admirable, which makes them similar to good people,' said co-lead researcher Caleb Warren, PhD, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Arizona. 'However, cool people often have other traits that aren't necessarily considered 'good' in a moral sense, like being hedonistic and powerful.' Lais – Why is coolness defined so similarly across cultures that differ so drastically in seemingly every other aspect of life? The study's co-lead researcher Todd Pezzuti, of the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile, explained, 'Everyone wants to be cool, or at least avoid the stigma of being uncool, and society needs cool people because they challenge norms, inspire change, and advance culture.' To determine what it means to be hip, researchers conducted experiments on 6,000 international participants between 2018 and 2022. Respondents hailed from the United States, Australia, Chile, China (mainland and Hong Kong), Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey. Participants were asked to think of people who were cool, not cool, good or not good and then rate the subjects' personalities and values. Daniel Craig as James Bond in 'No Time To Die' (2021). ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection Researchers used this data to analyze the differences between cool people, uncool people and good people. They found that 'good' people were seen as conforming, traditional, secure, warm, agreeable, universalistic, conscientious and calm. Meanwhile, 'cool' people boasted the aforementioned mixed bag of both 'good' and ethically-questionable traits. 'To be seen as cool, someone usually needs to be somewhat likable or admirable, which makes them similar to good people,' said co-lead researcher Caleb Warren, PhD, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Arizona. 'However, cool people often have other traits that aren't necessarily considered 'good' in a moral sense, like being hedonistic and powerful.' One is reminded of James Bonds and other simultaneously 'selfish' and 'selfless' action heroes. In fact, the article suggested that the increasingly international reach of movies and music transformed 'coolness' from a niche characteristic into a 'commercially-friendly' set of traits that transcends cultures — in other words, it's now square to be hip. But does coolness' mainstream appeal mean that it's, well, no longer cool? Pezzuti doesn't think so. 'Coolness has definitely evolved over time, but I don't think it has lost its edge. It's just become more functional,' he explained. 'The concept of coolness started in small, rebellious sub-cultures, including Black jazz musicians in the 1940s and the beatniks in the 1950s (yes, these countercultural pioneers were cool before it was cool).' He added, 'As society moves faster and puts more value on creativity and change, cool people are more essential than ever.'
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First Post
01-07-2025
- Science
- First Post
Are you really cool? A global survey finds 6 traits to fit the definition
The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, involved nearly 6,000 participants from 12 countries. Despite differences in geography, age, income, education, and gender, responses were remarkably consistent read more A new global survey has identified six core traits commonly associated with 'cool' individuals: extroversion, hedonism, power, adventurousness, openness, and autonomy. The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, involved nearly 6,000 participants from 12 countries. Despite differences in geography, age, income, education, and gender, responses were remarkably consistent. 'What blew my mind was the fact that it was pretty much the same result everywhere,' said Dr Caleb Warren, one of the study's authors and a professor at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Cool, but not always kind Participants were asked to think of specific people they considered cool, not cool, good, and not good. They then assessed these individuals based on 15 personality traits. While there was some overlap between cool and good individuals, 'good' people were more often described as conforming, traditional, secure, warm, agreeable, conscientious, calm, and universalistic. Interestingly, kindness, commonly associated with goodness, was not a defining feature of those seen as cool. Western roots of cool All participants recognized the word 'cool' in English, without translation. Researchers suggest this reflects the global influence of American media and cultural exports. 'Globally, American success has led to the diffusion of music styles and an immense amount of cultural content, including, apparently, the concept of cool,' said Dr Joseph Henrich, an anthropologist at Harvard University who was not involved in the study. Limits and bias One limitation noted by the researchers is that participants who didn't recognize the English word 'cool' were excluded. This means the findings cannot fully assess how the concept is understood or valued in non-Western cultures. The average age of participants also skewed young, typically around 30 or under. Other studies suggest cultural factors influence what is seen as desirable. 'Factors like aggression make us have higher status in some Western cultures and simultaneously give us less status in the East,' said Mitch Prinstein, chief of psychology at the American Psychological Association. Adolescence and identity Coolness may be especially influential during adolescence. Prior research has found it affects preferences in entertainment, social interactions, and even consumer behaviour. But what society deems cool may not always align with personal values. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Dr Warren and his colleagues made this distinction by comparing perceptions of cool versus good. Across cultures, traits tied to kindness or helpfulness were more frequently associated with being good rather than cool. Is it worth it? Dr Warren offers a word of caution. 'I have serious doubts,' he said, when asked if coolness is a trait worth chasing. Some research suggests that adolescents who engage in risk-taking to appear cool may face challenges later in life, including issues with substance use and relationships. 'They are doing more extreme things to try to act cool,' one of the researchers told The New York Times. Dr Prinstein added that while popularity may bring attention and visibility, long-term success often depends on being genuinely liked. 'Even the most uncool kid will probably fare well if they have at least one close friend,' he said. Coolness, it seems, is more complicated than it appears, and not always beneficial in the long run. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
