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- Posted July 7, 2025
Six Key Traits That Make Someone 'Cool,' Study Finds
What does it take to be considered “cool”?
A new international study may have the answer — and it turns out cool people tend to act the same way no matter where they live.
Researchers from universities in Chile, the United States and beyond found that people seen as “cool” share six key personality traits, CNN reported.
These traits were the same across all 12 countries included in the study, which was published last week in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
“Regardless of whether it’s China or Korea or Chile or the US, people like people who are pushing boundaries and sparking change," study author Todd Pezzuti, an associate professor of marketing at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile, told CNN. “So I would say that coolness really represents something more fundamental than the actual label of coolness.”
Between 2018 and 2022, the researchers surveyed nearly 6,000 people from around the world — including participants from Australia, Chile, China, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey and the United States.
Respondents were asked to think of someone in their life they consider “cool” or “uncool,” and someone they view as “good” or “not good.”
They then rated those individuals based on two scientific scales that measure personality and values.
The study found that people who were seen as cool tended to be:
Extroverted
Pleasure-seekers (hedonistic)
Powerful
Adventurous
Open to new experiences
Independent (autonomous)
These traits were consistent regardless of age, gender or education.
Being a “good” person, on the other hand, was linked with being calm, kind, warm, traditional and secure. People who were considered capable were often seen as both cool and good.
Pezzuti said the cool traits are likely part of someone’s personality — not something that can be easily taught.
“We’re born with those attributes,” he told CNN. “Five of those attributes are personality traits, and personality traits tend to be fairly stable.”
Co-lead researcher, Caleb Warren, said cool people are usually somewhat likable, but that doesn’t always mean they’re morally good.
“However, cool people often have other traits that aren’t necessarily considered ‘good’ in a moral sense, like being hedonistic and powerful,” Warren, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Arizona, said in a news release.
When asked for a real-life example of someone who matches the study’s cool traits, Pezzuti named the world’s richest man.
“He’s a controversial figure, but someone who comes to my mind is Elon Musk,” Pezzuti said.
He added that Musk’s weed-smoking on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast was emblematic of some of the hedonistic and extroverted qualities mentioned in the study.
Columbia University psychology professor Jon Freeman, who reviewed the findings, told CNN in an email that “coolness” can have both positive and negative meanings.
“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 said.
Researchers noted that their study only included people who already understood the term “cool.” It’s unclear whether people in very traditional or remote cultures would see the same traits as admirable.
“ ‘Cool’ is deeply ingrained in our social vocabulary," Freeman explained.
"It serves as a shorthand for complex inferences. It encapsulates signals of status, affiliation, and identity in ways that are instantaneous yet deeply stereotyped," he added. "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.”
More information
The American Psychological Association has more on "cool" people.
SOURCE: CNN, July 4, 2025
