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 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."

Rebellion is and always has been at the very heart of cool, says author and professor Joel Dinerstein.