摘要：“酷”到底是什么？是天生气场，还是可以修炼的特质？《纽约时报》揭秘一项横跨全球12国的心理学研究，发现“酷”竟由六大特质精准定义！研究显示，无论你身处东京、纽约还是里约，人们对“酷”的认知惊人一致。但更颠覆的是：“酷”不等于“好”，甚至可能成为青春的“毒药”？

有趣灵魂说

“酷”到底是什么？是天生气场，还是可以修炼的特质？《纽约时报》揭秘一项横跨全球12国的心理学研究，发现“酷”竟由 六大特质 精准定义！研究显示，无论你身处东京、纽约还是里约，人们对“酷”的认知惊人一致。但更颠覆的是：“酷”不等于“好”，甚至可能成为青春的“毒药”？研究揭示，那些靠冒险和特立独行博取关注的青少年，成年后更容易陷入危机… 而真正的幸福密码，或许藏在最朴素的品质里。

译文为原创，仅供个人学习使用

The New York Times ｜Science Times

纽约时报 ｜ 科学

What Makes Someone Cool? A New Study Offers Clues

是什么让人变得酷？一项新研究提供了线索

Six traits can determine your ‘it’ factor, according to researchers who measured coolness around the globe.

研究人员测量了全球范围内的酷感，发现六种特质可以决定你的“酷”因素。

By Christina Caron

Kimberly Elliott

是否存在一种秘方，能解释为什么像大卫·鲍伊、塞缪尔·杰克逊和查莉·XCX这样截然不同的人都显得如此自信，嗯，很酷？

一项新研究表明，这些人往往有六个具体的共同特质：酷的人在很大程度上被认为 性格外向、追求享乐、有影响力、热爱冒险、思想开放且独立自主 。

这项于周一发表在《实验心理学杂志：总刊》(Journal of Experimental Psychology: General)上的研究，调查了来自全球12个国家的近6000名参与者。无论参与者居住在哪里，也无论他们在年龄、收入水平、教育程度或性别上存在何种差异，他们对什么是“酷”的看法都相似。

“让我感到震惊的是，几乎在每个地方都得到了相同的结果，”该研究的作者之一、亚利桑那大学埃勒管理学院教授卡莱布·沃伦(Caleb Warren)说。他研究消费者心理学已有二十年。

在这项研究中，每位参与者都必须能识别英文单词“cool”，无需翻译，这表明他们已经熟悉——或者甚至可能崇拜——来自美国等富裕西方国家的酷感观念。

从这个意义上说，这项研究为了解文化信念如何从一群人传播到另一群人提供了一个窗口，哈佛大学人类进化生物学教授、未参与该研究的人类学家约瑟夫·亨里奇(Joseph Henrich)说。

David Bowie

“在全球范围内，美国的成功导致了音乐风格和大量文化内容的传播，显然也包括‘酷’的概念，”亨里奇博士说。

“酷”并非一个被广泛研究的主题。过去的研究发现，酷通常被认为是积极的事物：酷的人也友好、能干、时髦且有吸引力。但沃伦博士和他的同事们想知道，是什么让一个人明显“酷”，而不仅仅是“好”。

因此，研究人员要求参与者思考具体的人：一个酷的人、一个不酷的人、一个好的人和一个不好的人。然后，他们要求参与者通过回答问卷来评估每个人，问卷综合衡量了15种不同的属性。

虽然酷的人和好的人有重叠的特质，但与酷的人相比，好的人被认为更循规蹈矩、传统、有安全感、热情、随和、具有普世性（即一个人认为每个人和每件事都是平等的或同样值得关心和尊重的程度）、尽责且冷静。

那些被认为有能力的人则同样被视为既酷又好。

该研究的一个局限是，任何不认识“cool”这个词的人都会被自动过滤掉。因此，数据无法确定该词在不同国家的使用频率，也无法确定在某些文化中，酷感是否会带来相对于他人更高的社会地位。此外，虽然研究包括了年龄跨度很大的参与者，但人群偏向年轻人：每个地区的平均年龄通常在30岁或以下。

其他研究表明，存在重要的文化差异，这些差异会影响我们所重视的特质。

“像攻击性这样的因素，会让我们在一些西方文化中获得更高的地位，同时却让我们在东方失去地位，”美国心理学会心理学主管米奇·普林斯坦(Mitch Prinstein)说。他曾写过两本关于受欢迎程度的书，而受欢迎可能是酷感的一个结果。

对酷感的研究表明，追求酷的欲望在青春期尤其强烈，它不仅影响人们的购买行为或崇拜对象，还影响他们的说话方式以及休闲娱乐的内容。

Charli XCX

但更广泛文化所认为的酷，可能与你个人认为的酷并不相同。这就是为什么沃伦博士和他的同事们要求每位参与者思考他们认为酷的人和好的人。有趣的是，普遍而言，通常与善良或乐于助人相关的特质类型，更常被认为是好的，而不是酷的。

那么，酷感是一种值得追求的特质吗？

对此，沃伦博士说：“我深表怀疑。”

涉及冒险和在青春期过早涉足社会的酷感，可能在年轻时带来受欢迎度，但2014年发表的一项研究发现，许多以这种方式行事的青少年后来在20多岁时会陷入困境，出现酗酒、吸毒和人际关系问题。“他们正在做更极端的事情来试图表现得酷，”其中一位研究人员告诉《纽约时报》。

对于学校里受欢迎的孩子来说，“地位意味着支配、关注度和能见度，”普林斯坦博士说。但他补充道，决定长期成功的，是你有多受人喜爱。

“即使是最不酷的孩子，只要至少有一个亲密朋友，他可能也会过得很好，”他补充道。

也许酷感——尤其是那种不屑一顾的“酷到不屑上学”的类型——并不像人们吹嘘的那么好。◾

Is there a secret sauce that helps explain why people as different as David Bowie, Samuel L. Jackson and Charli XCX all seem so self-assured and, well, cool?

A new study suggests that there are six specific traits that these people tend to have in common: Cool people are largely perceived to be extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous.

The study, which was published on Monday in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, surveyed nearly 6,000 participants from 12 countries around the world. Their beliefs about what’s “cool” were similar regardless of where the study participants lived, and despite differences in age, income level, education or gender.

“What blew my mind was the fact that it was pretty much the same result everywhere,” said Caleb Warren, one of the authors of the study and a professor at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona who has researched consumer psychology for two decades.

In the study, each participant had to recognize the word “cool” in English, without translation, suggesting that they were already familiar with — or maybe even idolized — notions of coolness from wealthy Western countries like the United States.

In that sense, the study offers a window into the spread of cultural beliefs from one group of people to another, said Joseph Henrich, an anthropologist and a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard who was not involved in the study.

“Globally, American success has led to the diffusion of music styles and an immense amount of cultural content, including, apparently, the concept of cool,” Dr. Henrich said.

Coolness is not a widely studied subject. Past researchhas found that coolness is usually considered something positive: People who are cool are also friendly, competent, trendy and attractive. But Dr. Warren and his colleagues wanted to know what makes a person distinctly “cool” rather than just “good.”

So the researchers asked the participants to think of specific people: one who is cool, one who is not cool, one who is good and one who is not good. Then they asked the participants to evaluate each person by answering questionnaires that collectively measured 15 different attributes.

While the cool and good people had overlapping traits, compared with their cool counterparts, good people were perceived as more conforming, traditional, secure, warm, agreeable, universalistic (the extent to which a person sees everyone and everything as being equal or equally worthy of care and respect), conscientious and calm.

Those who were perceived as capable were equally considered cool and good.

One limitation of the study was that anyone who did not know the word “cool” was automatically filtered out. As a result, the data cannot determine how frequently the word is used in different countries or whether in certain cultures coolness will lead to a higher social status relative to others. In addition, while the study included participants with a wide range of ages, the population skewed young: The average age from each region was generally 30 or younger.

Other studieshave shown that there are important cultural differences that can affect the traits that we value.

“Factors like aggression make us have higher status in some Western cultures and simultaneously give us less status in the East,” said Mitch Prinstein, the chief of psychology at the American Psychological Association, who has written two books about popularity, which can be a consequence of coolness.

Research on coolness suggests that the desire to be cool is particularly strong during adolescence, and it influences not only what people buyor whom they admire but also how they talk and what they do for fun.

But what’s considered cool by the broader culture might not be the same as what you personally believe is cool. This is why Dr. Warren and his colleagues asked each participant to think about the people they considered cool vs. good. Interestingly, across the board, the types of traits that are typically associated with kindness or helpfulness were more often perceived as good instead of cool.

So is coolness a trait that’s worth pursuing?

To that end, Dr. Warren, said, “I have serious doubts.”

Coolness that involves risk-taking and being socially precocious during adolescence may offer popularity during youth, but one study published in 2014 found that many teenagerswho behaved in this way would later struggle in their 20s, developing problems with alcohol, drugs and relationships. “They are doing more extreme things to try to act cool,” one of the researchers told The New York Times.

For the popular kids in school, “status is dominance, visibility, attention,” Dr. Prinstein said. But, he added, it is how well-liked you are that contributes to long-term success.

“Even the most uncool kid will probably fare well if they have at least one close friend,” he added.

Perhaps coolness — particularly the dismissive “too cool for school” variety — isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

来源：左右图史