What Makes Someone Cool? Science Has An Answer

From Santiago to Seoul, cool people share remarkably similar personality traits despite vast cultural differences, according to new research spanning 12 countries and nearly 6,000 participants.

The study reveals that coolness transcends borders, challenging assumptions about cultural relativity while confirming what many suspected: everyone recognizes cool when they see it.

Published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, the research found that cool individuals are universally perceived as more extraverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open, and autonomous—regardless of whether they live in Chile or China, Germany or Nigeria.

“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,” explained co-lead researcher Todd Pezzuti, an associate professor of marketing at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile.

The Global Cool Formula

The study spanned from 2018 to 2022, collecting data from the United States, Australia, Chile, mainland China, Hong Kong, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, and Turkey. Participants were asked to think of someone they considered cool, uncool, good, or not good, then rate that person’s personality and values.

The results revealed a striking consistency across cultures. While Eastern and Western societies often diverge on many cultural attitudes, the perception of coolness remained remarkably uniform. This suggests that globalization has created a shared understanding of what constitutes cool behavior and personality traits.

Cool vs. Good: The Crucial Difference

The research uncovered an important distinction between being “cool” and being “good.” While there’s some overlap, the two concepts diverge in meaningful ways:

• Good people: More conforming, traditional, secure, warm, agreeable, conscientious, and calm
• Cool people: More rebellious, unconventional, powerful, hedonistic, and autonomous
• Shared traits: Both groups tend to be somewhat likable and admirable

“To be seen as cool, someone usually needs to be somewhat likable or admirable, which makes them similar to good people,” noted co-lead researcher Caleb Warren from 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.”

The Evolution of Cool

The study suggests that as fashion, music, and film industries expand globally, the meaning of cool has “crystallized on a similar set of values and traits around the globe” and become “more commercially friendly.” This raises questions about whether coolness has been sanitized by mainstream culture.

However, Pezzuti argues that coolness hasn’t lost its rebellious edge—it’s simply evolved. “Coolness has definitely evolved over time, but I don’t think it has lost its edge. It’s just become more functional,” he observed.

The concept originated in small, rebellious subcultures, including Black jazz musicians in the 1940s and beatniks in the 1950s. As society accelerates and places greater value on creativity and change, cool people have become more essential rather than less relevant.

The Science Behind Social Currency

The research methodology included a crucial detail not emphasized in the press release: only participants familiar with the slang meaning of “cool” were included in the study. This screening process ensured that cultural and linguistic variations didn’t skew the results, strengthening the findings about universal coolness traits.

The study’s online format means findings may not extend to rural areas without internet access, but the consistency across diverse urban populations suggests robust cross-cultural validity.

As globalization continues reshaping cultural norms, this research reveals that some aspects of human social perception remain surprisingly consistent. Whether cool people are corporate innovators or underground artists, the fundamental traits that define coolness appear to be universal constants in our increasingly connected world.