Researchers study what makes us ‘cool’

To get to the heart of cool, the researchers came up with three separate studies. In the first, they asked participants (353 college students from a large Canadian university) to submit words that described cool. In the second, they asked participants to rank how cool or desirable these qualities were.
“We wanted to tease apart coolness and social desirability,” says Dar-Nimrod, who is very aware that his last name is definitely not cool. “There is a lot of overlap between social desirability and coolness.” In the third and final study, subjects were asked to rank their friends based on these qualities.
What makes a person cool? The Body Odd scrutinized the paper for suggestions. Although the following traits are actually more desirable than cool (according to the second study), these simple steps will make you what Dar-Nimrod dubs “cachet cool.”
Be hot. When Dar-Nimrod first asked participants what words describe cool, he received myriad responses (1,639 to be exact). But again and again, he encountered words like “hot,” “handsome,” “beautiful,” “cute,” and “sexy,” with an overall theme of physical attractiveness. People agree that being attractive is cool.
“Our research was kind of designed to see what goes into coolness evaluation,” he says. “What we found was that the dominant perception of coolness is revolving around social desirability and generic semi-gentrified traits.” Be friendly. Dar-Nimrod believed that coolness would have a rebellious feel to it, a James Dean “Rebel Without a Cause” vibe. What he found instead was that most people believe friendliness constitutes cool. Be personally competent (successful). Achieving good grades in school or holding down a secure job with a good paycheck feels cool, according to subjects. In fact, being smart or talented was the second most popular suggestion of what cool is (the most noted cool trait was friendliness or popularity). Be pro-social. Participants believed people were cool if they volunteered or recycled or joined in socially responsible activities.Other cool qualities? Trendiness, desirableness, individualism, confidence and, yes, a sense of humor. What about the James Dean/Jack Kerouac cool that Dar-Nimrod thought he’d find, a coolness
based on rebellion and fighting “the Man?” (The researcher believes he exemplified this as a teen when he bought dark sunglasses and started smoking.) This kind of cool, which Dar-Nimrod calls “contrarian cool,” still exists.
“There is a smaller and different facet … which is the dark, historical coolness, revolving around counterculture, risky behavior, irony,” says Dar-Nimrod. “Going into the project, it is what I perceived as coolness. [It is] much less dominant.”