The definition of “cool” seems to be a short -lived thing. (We are not talking about temperature here. We are talking about James Dean, Serena Williams and Arthur Fonzarelli Cool.) What inspires the one to admire another would apparently vary from person to person.
That did not prevent a global group of scientists to see what it means to be cool. And what they thought was that “cool” is much more universal than you would expect.
“Everyone wants to be cool, or at least be on -cool’s stigma, and society needs cool people because they challenge standards, inspire change and promote culture,” said Co-Lead Researcher TODD PEZUGTI, PhD, associate professor of Marketing at the University of Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile, in a statement.
The Peer-Reviewed StudyIt was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology of the American Psychological Association, included experiments with around 6,000 participants from all over the world between 2018 and 2022. The participants were asked to think of someone they thought was the cool, not cool, good or not good, then assess the personality and values of those people.
Cool is universal in more ways than you would expect. The study showed, for example, that even in countries with languages based on non-Latine alphabets, such as South Korea and Turkey, “people use the word cool, often pronounced when it is pronounced in the same way as it is pronounced in English.”
Cool people are sympathetic but not always good
It is not surprising that there was a crossover between whom the participants considered a good person and a cool person. But despite the overlap in some properties, the two are not the same, researchers thought.
“To be considered cool, someone usually needs to be somewhat sympathetic or admirable, making them similar to good people,” said Co-lead researcher Caleb Warren, PhD, a associate professor of Marketing at the University of Arizona. “Cool people, however, often have other characteristics that are not necessarily not considered ‘good’ in a moral sense.”
That could explain why anti -heroes, especially in films and TV programs, are considered so often as cool.
However, there is a risk of homogenization of coolness such as music, films and fashion becoming worldwide products. When Taylor Swift and the Avengers are characteristics, these conversations and pop culture do not dominate only in the United States, but in almost any other country the definitions of what it means to be cool also become fixed.
Indeed, the perception of coolness wrote researchers: “Is 1751487332 Stable about countries, which suggests that the meaning of cool is crystallized on a similar series of values and properties around the world. ”
That said, being cool has not lost his coolness. It just improved.
“Koelte has certainly evolved over time, but I don’t think it has lost its lead. It has just become more functional,” said Pezzuti. “The concept of coolness began in small, rebellious subcultures, including among black jazz musicians in the 1940s and the Beatniks in the 1950s. While society is moving faster and attaches more value to creativity and change, cool people are more essential than ever.”
What makes someone cool?
The study showed that Cool is largely describing six characteristics.
Perhaps the most clear, cool people are more extrovert than not -cool people. They are also powerful, hedonistic, adventurous, open and autonomous.
There are of course limits. Take musicians, a group that produces many cool people as an example.
“A rock band seemed cooler when the moderate levels of autonomy showed (for example, not trying to write songs that everyone likes) than extreme autonomy (for example, not at all giving what others think about their music),” is the study. “The same is probably applicable to the other cool properties. For example, a hedonistic person who partys all night, abused drugs and has reckless sex, most people will probably find irresponsible instead of cool.”
Good people, according to the study, have many of the same qualities, but other personality traits were ranked more by the topics.
“Calm, conscientious, universalistic, pleasant, warm, safe, traditional and conforming are more associated with good people,” is the study. “Being capable is both cool and good, but also not clear.”
#Psychologists #cool #appears #definitions #universal