What makes someone feel instantly cool, no matter where you meet them? A new study suggests the answer is surprisingly consistent across cultures, and it has less to do with fashion trends and more to do with personality. Researchers found that people in very different parts of the world tend to picture “cool” in almost the same way. The findings also hint that global media has helped shape a shared, modern idea of what cool looks like.
The research, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, compared how adults from both Eastern and Western societies define coolness. Across a series of psychological experiments carried out between 2018 and 2022, nearly 6,000 participants from 13 countries took part, including the United States, China, Germany, Nigeria, and Chile. They were asked to describe the personality and values of people they considered cool, not cool, good, or not good. That mix mattered because it helped separate social appeal from moral approval.
When the responses were analyzed, a clear pattern emerged. Cool people were repeatedly seen as more extroverted, more pleasure leaning, and more powerful in presence. They were also viewed as adventurous, open to new experiences, and highly autonomous. In everyday terms, that can look like someone who brings energy into a room, takes bold chances, follows curiosity, and seems comfortable steering their own life.
What’s especially interesting is how different this is from how we describe “good” people. Participants tended to associate goodness with being more agreeable and adaptable, more traditional, more secure and steady, warmer, and more conscientious. Some qualities can overlap in real life, but the study suggests that being cool is not the same as being morally admirable. Coolness appears to be its own social category, built around independence and impact rather than kindness and reliability.
One of the study’s leaders, Todd Pezzuti, connected this to how coolness has worked throughout history. He described cool people as culture shifters who challenge norms and inspire change, even when that makes them a little polarizing. The idea, he noted, grew out of smaller rebellious scenes like 1940s jazz circles and 1950s beat culture. Over time, the worldwide growth of fashion, music, and film helped turn coolness into something more recognizable across borders, and more commercially friendly, without fully losing its edge.
The researchers believe these results can help explain how status forms and how cultural rules evolve. If coolness is tied to a specific set of traits rather than general goodness, it makes sense that it can influence social hierarchies and trendsetting. From San Francisco to Seoul, the people we label cool often seem built to question conventions and push new ideas forward. That may be exactly why the label still carries so much weight.
Do you agree with these six traits, or do you think truly cool people are defined by something else entirely? Share your thoughts in the comments.
