Being Cool

 Cool people are desirable and in demand; others want to be them or be with them. That social clout  readily converts into capital as people buy what you're selling, hoping it will rub off on them.

The trick, of course, is that it rarely does. "Cool" is fiendish like a riddle: it cannot be bought, though it's enthusiastically sold, and it can't be claimed without surrendering its benefits. The more you aspire to be cool the more uncool you are likely to be...

A much publicised paper recently published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that cool people are seen as possessing six attributes: they are extroverted, open, hedonistic, adventurous, autonomous and powerful...

A Cool Retreat
Henry Garland (1834-1913)
Photo Credit: Leicester Museums and Galleries [CC  BY-NC-SA]

"People can increase how cool they seem to others to a certain extent," says Todd Pezzuti, an associate professor of business at the Adolfo Ibanez University in Chile and the study's lead author. "But I also think it's limited... Coolness has to live within you to really make it work."...

The six traits recently identified are similarly context-specific, Pezzuti says. A musician could be seen as cool for disregarding what's popular, expressing autonomy - but not if they're too avant garde and alienate audiences.

And the status points afforded by hedonism, hard partying and drugs can easily be squandered if they tip into irresponsible or sloppy behaviour...

Joel Dinerstein, professor of English at Tulane University and author of The Origins of Cool in Postwar America agrees with Pezzuti's findings on what makes someone seem cool, but says they don't capture it entirely. "It's a combination of rebellion, personal style, otherworldly confidence and charisma... It's actually a very mysterious calculus."

Above all, "a person who;s cool does not give a shit about what you think about them," Dinerstein says. "I wish I could find a shorter and non-vulgar way of saying it."

Age and physical attractiveness are also undeniably relevant in a culture that prizes youth and beauty. And in today's consumer economy, to be cool, you must also be marketable...

Now commercial success doesn't contradict cool; it confirms it. Even marketing is seen as creative work... 

(Elle Hunt, The Guardian, 2025)

So, to be "cool" you have to be extroverted, (loud and self-centred?) open (willing to share information and presumably, gossip) hedonistic (pursue pleasure at all costs) adventurous (willing to take risks) autonomous (making your own decisions) powerful (having control over other people) Thankfully I do not meet all the criteria and therefore I definitely am not COOL.