Got To Be Kind To Be CoolIs Steve Buscemi cool? That's not just an academic question — but it did spark one. After arguing with a grad student about whether the tangle-toothed star of "Boardwalk Empire" (and indie-ish movie darling) is cool, psychologist Ilan Dar-Nimrod decided to study whether "cool" still means the same thing it did when he was growing up in the '80s. To his seeming dismay, he determined: It does not. Coolness, like everything else, has moved on. It has lost its edge. When he was a teen, says Dar-Nimrod, now at the University of Rochester Medical Center, the coolness pantheon was peopled by the likes of James Dean and Jimi Hendrix. They were outsiders, edgy. Their aloofness was perfectly symbolized by their accessory of choice: shades. Dark glasses allowed them to separate from the masses — no one could see if they were ever hurt or sad. In that way, coolness was almost defensive. By covering your eyes, says Dar-Nimrod, "You are removing yourself from being the butt of other people's bullying." Coupled with a kind of toughness implying "Don't mess with me," the cool dude (or, sometimes, dudette) was an individualist. Maybe he was one of a million similar individualists, of course, but at least the message was: I'm not going to let you and your stinkin' middle American values get to me. But today? Like the globe itself, coolness is warming. That's what Dar-Nimrod concluded through a series of experiments he ran. What the heck IS a coolness experiment? Well, as Dar-Nimrod seems to be the first person to try to scientifically define coolness (unless there's someone hidden in a lab at Ray-Ban), it's impossible to say what a coolness experiment "usually" is. But in his case, the study — since published in the "Journal of Individual Differences" — had three different elements. 1 — His team asked people to come up with adjectives that they associate with coolness. 2 — The team also gave people over 90 different characteristics to rate on how cool those were, and how socially desirable.
When Dar-Nimrod boiled down the results, he found that while there is certainly still some lingering link between "cool" and "rebellious" and even "tough," there's an even stronger link between cool and the traits of attractiveness and friendliness. That makes cool about as rebellious as Barbie. What's more, he learned: You can be the world's warmest person — passionate about saving seals or collecting stamps — and still be abundantly cool. "The much darker version of what coolness is is still there, but it is not the main focus," says the psychologist. "The main thing is: Do I like this person? Is this person nice to people, attractive, confident and successful? That's cool today, at least among young mainstream individuals." This must be a total drag for anyone hoping to sulk around smoking cigarettes and wait for the world to tremble in awe. But it's great news for those of us who always wondered why being a stand-offish jerk was such a status symbol. Dar-Nimrod says that coolness has become gentrified in the same way that edgy neighborhoods first rediscovered by artists eventually become chock-full of yuppies buying $20 yo-yos made of organic twigs. But it's quite possible that what's lost is something worth losing. Warm and engaged is finally winning out over dark, defensive and sometimes druggy? I, for one, am very cool with that. Lenore Skenazy is the author of "Free-Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry)" and "Who's the Blonde That Married What's-His-Name? The Ultimate Tip-of-the-Tongue Test of Everything You Know You Know — But Can't Remember Right Now." To find out more about Lenore Skenazy (lskenazy@yahoo.com) and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM 
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