Latest news with #UniversidadAdolfoIbáñez
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
‘Cool' people tend to have these six things in common, study finds
An international team of researchers may have just cracked the code for what makes someone 'cool.' And no matter where you live, the personality traits that make someone 'cool' appear to be consistent across countries, according to the study, published this week in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. The researchers found that, compared with people considered to be 'good' or 'favorable,' those considered 'cool' are perceived to be more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous. 'The most surprising thing was seeing that the same attributes emerge in every country,' said Todd Pezzuti, an associate professor of marketing at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile who was a co-lead researcher on the study. 'Regardless of whether it's China or Korea or Chile or the US, people like people who are pushing boundaries and sparking change,' he said. 'So I would say that coolness really represents something more fundamental than the actual label of coolness.' The researchers – from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, the University of Arizona and the University of Georgia – conducted experiments from 2018 to 2022 with nearly 6,000 people across a dozen countries: Australia, Chile, China, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United States. The participants were asked to think of a person in their lives whom they perceive to be 'cool,' 'uncool,' 'good' or 'not good.' They were then asked to rate that person's personality using two scales: the Big Five Personality scale, a widely used scientific model that helps describe personality traits, and the Portrait Values Questionnaire, intended to measure an individual's basic values. The study participants consistently associated being calm, conscientious, universalistic, agreeable, warm, secure, traditional and conforming with being a good person, more than with being a cool person. Being capable was considered to be both 'cool' and 'good' but not distinctly either. But the formula for being 'cool' was having the six character traits – more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous – no matter the person's age, gender or education level. Pezzuti doesn't think these 'cool' traits are something that can be taught. 'We're born with those attributes,' he said. 'Five of those attributes are personality traits, and personality traits tend to be fairly stable.' The research showed that cool people and good people aren't the same, but there may be some overlapping traits, said co-lead researcher Caleb Warren, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Arizona. 'To be seen as cool, someone usually needs to be somewhat likable or admirable, which makes them similar to good people,' Warren said in a news release. 'However, cool people often have other traits that aren't necessarily considered 'good' in a moral sense, like being hedonistic and powerful.' A limitation of the research was that only people who understood what 'cool' means were included in the study. Pezzuti said it would be interesting – but difficult – to determine whether the findings would be similar among more traditional cultures or remote groups of people who may be less familiar with the term. 'We don't know what we would find in supertraditional cultures like hunting-and-gathering tribes or sustenance farming groups,' Pezzuti said. 'One thing we would propose is that in those cultures, 'cool' people don't have as important of a role because innovation, or cultural innovation, isn't as important in those cultures,' he said. 'So I would say that cool people are probably present in those cultures, but their role isn't as big, and they're probably not as admired as they are in other cultures.' When asked to think of a public figure or celebrity who embodies 'coolness' based on his research, Pezzuti immediately said Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. 'He's a controversial figure, but someone who comes to my mind is Elon Musk,' Pezzuti said, adding that he checks all the boxes of the six attributes identified in the study. Musk is 'undeniably powerful' and autonomous, he said, and appears to be extroverted due to his presence on social media platforms and in the media. 'I hear that he's timid, maybe more timid than he seems, but from an outsider, he seems very extroverted. He's entertaining. He's on podcasts and always in front of cameras,' Pezzuti explained. Some of Musk's behavior also appears to be hedonistic, he said. 'He smoked marijuana on the most popular podcast in the world, 'The Joe Rogan Experience.'' And Pezzuti added that Musk's ideas about colonizing Mars show him to be open and adventurous. The new paper is one of the few empirical studies that examines what exactly makes people 'cool,' said Jonah Berger, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. 'While people have long wondered (and theorized) about what makes people cool, there hasn't been a lot of actual empirical research on the topic, so it's great to see work exploring this space,' Berger, who was not involved in the new paper, wrote in an email. 'While coolness might seem like something you are born with, there are certainly steps people can take to try and move in that direction,' he said. 'Given how many people want to be cool, and how much money is spent with that goal in mind, it certainly seems worth studying.' Future research in this space could evaluate coolness in tandem with goodness and badness rather than in isolation from it, said Jon Freeman, an associate professor of psychology at Columbia University. 'In real life, coolness can be a positive quality but can also have a negative connotation in certain social contexts. It may be valuable for future work to examine the differences between good coolness and bad coolness, and this study's approach offers a great foundation,' Freeman, who also was not involved in the new study, wrote in an email. 'From a scientific standpoint, cool would seem far more a product of inference and social construction than genetics, although low-level temperament informed by genetics could feed into ongoing personality construction,' he said. ''Cool' is deeply ingrained in our social vocabulary because it serves as a shorthand for complex inferences. It encapsulates signals of status, affiliation, and identity in ways that are instantaneous yet deeply stereotyped. From a scientific perspective, studying coolness is important precisely because it reveals how rapid, schematic trait inferences influence behavior and social dynamics, especially in the age of social media and influencer culture.'
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Who's the coolest person at your July 4 barbecue? They got six things goin' on, according to a new study
An international team of researchers may have just cracked the code for what makes someone 'cool.' And no matter where you live, the personality traits that make someone 'cool' appear to be consistent across countries, according to the study, published this week in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. The researchers found that, compared with people considered to be 'good' or 'favorable,' those considered 'cool' are perceived to be more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous. 'The most surprising thing was seeing that the same attributes emerge in every country,' said Todd Pezzuti, an associate professor of marketing at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile who was a co-lead researcher on the study. 'Regardless of whether it's China or Korea or Chile or the US, people like people who are pushing boundaries and sparking change,' he said. 'So I would say that coolness really represents something more fundamental than the actual label of coolness.' The researchers – from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, the University of Arizona and the University of Georgia – conducted experiments from 2018 to 2022 with nearly 6,000 people across a dozen countries: Australia, Chile, China, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United States. The participants were asked to think of a person in their lives whom they perceive to be 'cool,' 'uncool,' 'good' or 'not good.' They were then asked to rate that person's personality using two scales: the Big Five Personality scale, a widely used scientific model that helps describe personality traits, and the Portrait Values Questionnaire, intended to measure an individual's basic values. The study participants consistently associated being calm, conscientious, universalistic, agreeable, warm, secure, traditional and conforming with being a good person, more than with being a cool person. Being capable was considered to be both 'cool' and 'good' but not distinctly either. But the formula for being 'cool' was having the six character traits – more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous – no matter the person's age, gender or education level. Pezzuti doesn't think these 'cool' traits are something that can be taught. 'We're born with those attributes,' he said. 'Five of those attributes are personality traits, and personality traits tend to be fairly stable.' The research showed that cool people and good people aren't the same, but there may be some overlapping traits, said co-lead researcher Caleb Warren, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Arizona. 'To be seen as cool, someone usually needs to be somewhat likable or admirable, which makes them similar to good people,' Warren said in a news release. 'However, cool people often have other traits that aren't necessarily considered 'good' in a moral sense, like being hedonistic and powerful.' A limitation of the research was that only people who understood what 'cool' means were included in the study. Pezzuti said it would be interesting – but difficult – to determine whether the findings would be similar among more traditional cultures or remote groups of people who may be less familiar with the term. 'We don't know what we would find in supertraditional cultures like hunting-and-gathering tribes or sustenance farming groups,' Pezzuti said. 'One thing we would propose is that in those cultures, 'cool' people don't have as important of a role because innovation, or cultural innovation, isn't as important in those cultures,' he said. 'So I would say that cool people are probably present in those cultures, but their role isn't as big, and they're probably not as admired as they are in other cultures.' When asked to think of a public figure or celebrity who embodies 'coolness' based on his research, Pezzuti immediately said Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. 'He's a controversial figure, but someone who comes to my mind is Elon Musk,' Pezzuti said, adding that he checks all the boxes of the six attributes identified in the study. Musk is 'undeniably powerful' and autonomous, he said, and appears to be extroverted due to his presence on social media platforms and in the media. 'I hear that he's timid, maybe more timid than he seems, but from an outsider, he seems very extroverted. He's entertaining. He's on podcasts and always in front of cameras,' Pezzuti explained. Some of Musk's behavior also appears to be hedonistic, he said. 'He smoked marijuana on the most popular podcast in the world, 'The Joe Rogan Experience.'' And Pezzuti added that Musk's ideas about colonizing Mars show him to be open and adventurous. The new paper is one of the few empirical studies that examines what exactly makes people 'cool,' said Jonah Berger, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. 'While people have long wondered (and theorized) about what makes people cool, there hasn't been a lot of actual empirical research on the topic, so it's great to see work exploring this space,' Berger, who was not involved in the new paper, wrote in an email. 'While coolness might seem like something you are born with, there are certainly steps people can take to try and move in that direction,' he said. 'Given how many people want to be cool, and how much money is spent with that goal in mind, it certainly seems worth studying.' Future research in this space could evaluate coolness in tandem with goodness and badness rather than in isolation from it, said Jon Freeman, an associate professor of psychology at Columbia University. 'In real life, coolness can be a positive quality but can also have a negative connotation in certain social contexts. It may be valuable for future work to examine the differences between good coolness and bad coolness, and this study's approach offers a great foundation,' Freeman, who also was not involved in the new study, wrote in an email. 'From a scientific standpoint, cool would seem far more a product of inference and social construction than genetics, although low-level temperament informed by genetics could feed into ongoing personality construction,' he said. ''Cool' is deeply ingrained in our social vocabulary because it serves as a shorthand for complex inferences. It encapsulates signals of status, affiliation, and identity in ways that are instantaneous yet deeply stereotyped. From a scientific perspective, studying coolness is important precisely because it reveals how rapid, schematic trait inferences influence behavior and social dynamics, especially in the age of social media and influencer culture.'
CNN
4 hours ago
- General
- CNN
The 6 traits that make someone cool, according to a new study
FacebookTweetLink An international team of researchers may have just cracked the code for what makes someone 'cool.' And no matter where you live, the personality traits that make someone 'cool' appear to be consistent across countries, according to the study, published this week in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. The researchers found that, compared with people considered to be 'good' or 'favorable,' those considered 'cool' are perceived to be more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous. 'The most surprising thing was seeing that the same attributes emerge in every country,' said Todd Pezzuti, an associate professor of marketing at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile who was a co-lead researcher on the study. 'Regardless of whether it's China or Korea or Chile or the US, people like people who are pushing boundaries and sparking change,' he said. 'So I would say that coolness really represents something more fundamental than the actual label of coolness.' The researchers – from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, the University of Arizona and the University of Georgia – conducted experiments from 2018 to 2022 with nearly 6,000 people across a dozen countries: Australia, Chile, China, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United States. The participants were asked to think of a person in their lives whom they perceive to be 'cool,' 'uncool,' 'good' or 'not good.' They were then asked to rate that person's personality using two scales: the Big Five Personality scale, a widely used scientific model that helps describe personality traits, and the Portrait Values Questionnaire, intended to measure an individual's basic values. The study participants consistently associated being calm, conscientious, universalistic, agreeable, warm, secure, traditional and conforming with being a good person, more than with being a cool person. Being capable was considered to be both 'cool' and 'good' but not distinctly either. But the formula for being 'cool' was having the six character traits – more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous – no matter the person's age, gender or education level. Pezzuti doesn't think these 'cool' traits are something that can be taught. 'We're born with those attributes,' he said. 'Five of those attributes are personality traits, and personality traits tend to be fairly stable.' The research showed that cool people and good people aren't the same, but there may be some overlapping traits, said co-lead researcher Caleb Warren, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Arizona. 'To be seen as cool, someone usually needs to be somewhat likable or admirable, which makes them similar to good people,' Warren said in a news release. 'However, cool people often have other traits that aren't necessarily considered 'good' in a moral sense, like being hedonistic and powerful.' A limitation of the research was that only people who understood what 'cool' means were included in the study. Pezzuti said it would be interesting – but difficult – to determine whether the findings would be similar among more traditional cultures or remote groups of people who may be less familiar with the term. 'We don't know what we would find in supertraditional cultures like hunting-and-gathering tribes or sustenance farming groups,' Pezzuti said. 'One thing we would propose is that in those cultures, 'cool' people don't have as important of a role because innovation, or cultural innovation, isn't as important in those cultures,' he said. 'So I would say that cool people are probably present in those cultures, but their role isn't as big, and they're probably not as admired as they are in other cultures.' When asked to think of a public figure or celebrity who embodies 'coolness' based on his research, Pezzuti immediately said Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. 'He's a controversial figure, but someone who comes to my mind is Elon Musk,' Pezzuti said, adding that he checks all the boxes of the six attributes identified in the study. Musk is 'undeniably powerful' and autonomous, he said, and appears to be extroverted due to his presence on social media platforms and in the media. 'I hear that he's timid, maybe more timid than he seems, but from an outsider, he seems very extroverted. He's entertaining. He's on podcasts and always in front of cameras,' Pezzuti explained. Some of Musk's behavior also appears to be hedonistic, he said. 'He smoked marijuana on the most popular podcast in the world, 'The Joe Rogan Experience.'' And Pezzuti added that Musk's ideas about colonizing Mars show him to be open and adventurous. The new paper is one of the few empirical studies that examines what exactly makes people 'cool,' said Jonah Berger, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. 'While people have long wondered (and theorized) about what makes people cool, there hasn't been a lot of actual empirical research on the topic, so it's great to see work exploring this space,' Berger, who was not involved in the new paper, wrote in an email. 'While coolness might seem like something you are born with, there are certainly steps people can take to try and move in that direction,' he said. 'Given how many people want to be cool, and how much money is spent with that goal in mind, it certainly seems worth studying.' Future research in this space could evaluate coolness in tandem with goodness and badness rather than in isolation from it, said Jon Freeman, an associate professor of psychology at Columbia University. 'In real life, coolness can be a positive quality but can also have a negative connotation in certain social contexts. It may be valuable for future work to examine the differences between good coolness and bad coolness, and this study's approach offers a great foundation,' Freeman, who also was not involved in the new study, wrote in an email. 'From a scientific standpoint, cool would seem far more a product of inference and social construction than genetics, although low-level temperament informed by genetics could feed into ongoing personality construction,' he said. ''Cool' is deeply ingrained in our social vocabulary because it serves as a shorthand for complex inferences. It encapsulates signals of status, affiliation, and identity in ways that are instantaneous yet deeply stereotyped. From a scientific perspective, studying coolness is important precisely because it reveals how rapid, schematic trait inferences influence behavior and social dynamics, especially in the age of social media and influencer culture.'
Fast Company
2 days ago
- Science
- Fast Company
Psychologists now know exactly what makes someone cool. Turns out, the definitions are universal
The definition of ' cool ' would seem to be an ephemeral thing. (We're not talking temperature here. We're talking James Dean, Serena Williams, and Arthur Fonzarelli cool.) What inspires one to admire another would ostensibly vary from person to person. That didn't stop a global group of scientists from looking into what it means to be cool, though. And what they found was ' cool ' is a lot more universal than you might expect. '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,' said co-lead researcher Todd Pezzuti, PhD, an associate professor of marketing at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile, in a statement. The peer-reviewed study, which was published in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Experimental Psychology, included experiments with roughly 6,000 participants from around the world between 2018 and 2022. Participants were asked to think of someone who they thought was cool, not cool, good, or not good, then rate the personality and values of those people. Cool is universal in more ways than you might expect. For example, the study found that even in countries with languages based on non-Latin alphabets, such as South Korea and Turkey, 'people use the word cool, often pronouncing it similarly to how it is pronounced in English.' Cool people are likable but not always good Not surprisingly, there was some crossover between who participants thought of as a good person and a cool person. But despite the overlap in some traits, the two aren't the same, researchers found. 'To be seen as cool, someone usually needs to be somewhat likable or admirable, which makes them similar to good people,' said co-lead researcher Caleb Warren, PhD, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Arizona. 'However, cool people often have other traits that aren't necessarily considered 'good' in a moral sense.' That could explain why antiheroes, especially in films and TV shows, are so often seen as cool. There is a risk of homogenization of coolness, though, as music, films, and fashion become global products. When Taylor Swift and the Avengers become properties that dominate conversations and pop culture—not only in the United States, but in virtually every other country—pre-existing definitions of what it means to be cool can also become more fixed. Indeed, the perception of coolness, researchers wrote, 'is [now] stable across countries, which suggests that the meaning of cool has crystallized on a similar set of values and traits around the globe.' That said, being cool hasn't lost its coolness. It has simply progressed. 'Coolness has definitely evolved over time, but I don't think it has lost its edge. It's just become more functional,' Pezzuti said. 'The concept of coolness started in small, rebellious sub-cultures, including among Black jazz musicians in the 1940s and the beatniks in the 1950s. As society moves faster and puts more value on creativity and change, cool people are more essential than ever.' What makes someone cool? The study found that being cool largely comes down to six traits. Perhaps most obviously, cool people are more extraverted than uncool people. They're also powerful, hedonistic, adventurous, open, and autonomous. There are limits, of course. Take musicians, a group that produces plenty of cool people, as an example. 'A rock band seemed more cool when it displayed moderate levels of autonomy (e.g., not trying to write songs that everyone likes) than extreme autonomy (e.g., not caring at all what others think about their music),' the study reads. 'The same likely applies to the other cool attributes. For example, a hedonistic person who parties all night, abuses drugs, and has reckless sex will likely strike most people as being irresponsible rather than cool.' Good people, the study found, have many of those same qualities, but other personality traits were ranked more highly by the subjects. 'Being calm, conscientious, universalistic, agreeable, warm, secure, traditional, and conforming are more associated with good than with cool people,' the study reads. 'Being capable is both cool and good, but not distinctly either.'
New York Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Researchers determine the six attributes that make somebody cool — do you have them?
Researchers have scientifically defined coolness. The idea of coolness might seem subjective, but international researchers have revealed that there is a nearly-universal consensus on what it means to be hip. 'The meaning of cool has crystallized on a similar set of values and traits around the globe,' the researchers wrote in the too-cool-for-school study, which was published in the Journal Of Experimental Psychology. According to their research, 'cool' people are generally perceived as more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous. 'To be seen as cool, someone usually needs to be somewhat likable or admirable, which makes them similar to good people,' said co-lead researcher Caleb Warren, PhD, an associate professor of marketing at 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.' Lais – Why is coolness defined so similarly across cultures that differ so drastically in seemingly every other aspect of life? The study's co-lead researcher Todd Pezzuti, of the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile, explained, '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.' To determine what it means to be hip, researchers conducted experiments on 6,000 international participants between 2018 and 2022. Respondents hailed from the United States, Australia, Chile, China (mainland and Hong Kong), Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey. Participants were asked to think of people who were cool, not cool, good or not good and then rate the subjects' personalities and values. Daniel Craig as James Bond in 'No Time To Die' (2021). ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection Researchers used this data to analyze the differences between cool people, uncool people and good people. They found that 'good' people were seen as conforming, traditional, secure, warm, agreeable, universalistic, conscientious and calm. Meanwhile, 'cool' people boasted the aforementioned mixed bag of both 'good' and ethically-questionable traits. 'To be seen as cool, someone usually needs to be somewhat likable or admirable, which makes them similar to good people,' said co-lead researcher Caleb Warren, PhD, an associate professor of marketing at 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.' One is reminded of James Bonds and other simultaneously 'selfish' and 'selfless' action heroes. In fact, the article suggested that the increasingly international reach of movies and music transformed 'coolness' from a niche characteristic into a 'commercially-friendly' set of traits that transcends cultures — in other words, it's now square to be hip. But does coolness' mainstream appeal mean that it's, well, no longer cool? Pezzuti doesn't think so. 'Coolness has definitely evolved over time, but I don't think it has lost its edge. It's just become more functional,' he explained. 'The concept of coolness started in small, rebellious sub-cultures, including Black jazz musicians in the 1940s and the beatniks in the 1950s (yes, these countercultural pioneers were cool before it was cool).' He added, 'As society moves faster and puts more value on creativity and change, cool people are more essential than ever.'
