University of Arizona business school researcher studies the psychology of cool

Cool — as in swell, hip or awesome — can be easy to spot but hard to define. New research from the University of Arizona business school links a half-dozen traits with being cool.

The characteristics are being extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous.

Professor Caleb Warren first began studying the psychology of cool to understand why people buy things. Now as faculty in UA's Eller College of Management, he says much of the economy is driven by attention and information.

“One of the only ways to break through the clutter is to be cool. And it’s easier to be cool by either embodying or identifying with cool people,” Warren said.

Thousands of survey participants in a dozen countries evaluated non-famous people on if they were cool or not and if they were good or not.

Results show some overlap between being cool and being good. The latter is more often seen as conforming and traditional. The survey found that traits associated with coolness are the same regardless of gender, age or culture.

Still left for Warren to study is why being cool is a characteristic valued worldwide.

“We need some sort of mechanism for rewarding people who push culture forward, who can change the norms, the ideals that we live by,” Warren said.

Warren said coolness is especially valued by industries such as art and technology, which churn on innovation.