🌅 “Cool” People Share These Six Traits

SOURCE

Pezzuti et al. (2025)

WHAT TO KNOW

• A trio of researchers surveyed nearly 6,000 people ages 17 to 75 in 12 countries to identify the values and personality traits that make a person “cool,” finding people across different cultures identify “coolness” in surprisingly similar ways. The team found people around the globe consistently identify coolness with six specific traits: extroversion, hedonism, power, adventurousness, openness, and autonomy.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The consistency with which people identified coolness across different ages, income levels, genders, education, and geographic locations surprised the researchers, who expected to uncover some cultural variations. The authors believe the concept of coolness—once a symbol of counterculture—has become more mainstream over time as the reach of fashion, music, entertainment, and various other industries has globalized, resulting in a more “commercially friendly” version of coolness spreading across cultures.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Along with coolness, the researchers asked participants to identify the traits that make someone a good person, finding the concepts are related but distinct. Good people are more often described as conforming, traditional, secure, warm, agreeable, universalistic (i.e., viewing everyone and everything in nature as equal or equally worthy of care, respect, and understanding), conscientious, and calm. The authors say the distinction is important because it helps explain why people admire others for different reasons. For instance, someone may view their grandmother as a good, but not necessarily cool, person.