What’s cooler than being cool? A six-point check list by academics specialising in marketing and consumer behaviour probably isn’t the answer you expected. That hasn’t stopped the authors of “Cool People”, a study recently published in the Journal Of Experimental Psychology, from trying to define the undefinable and quantify cool. After questioning nearly 6,000 respondents from 12 countries – including those beyond Western influence – they’ve drawn up six qualities as a gauge of coolness. And if you ain’t got them, then you ain’t got it.

For those taking notes, the cool keywords are: extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous. And these same characteristics kept on coming up again and again. “We expected a lot more variation, given the cultural differences, but the consistency was striking,” says Todd Pezzuti, who co-authored the report.

“These findings are in line with a 2018 Australian study, which defined coolness as including two components: ‘cachet coolness’ and ‘contrarian coolness’,” says Shakaila Forbes-Bell, a fashion psychologist and author of Big Dress Energy. The former “includes socially desirable traits such as openness and extroversion”, while the latter comprises “rebellious and edgy traits, like adventurousness and hedonism”.

Forbes-Bell suggests that, as a recipe, it makes sense – although perhaps it is missing a special ingredient. “In movies, TV shows and books, we’re able to easily identify ‘cool characters’ by a certain set of traits, so I do agree that there is somewhat of a formula for being cool,” she says. “However, the ability for someone to embody this formula is not easily replicable. You have to have a specific it factor that is somewhat innate.”

“It’s about effortlessness,” says the Tokyo-based fashion journalist and consultant Ashley Ogawa Clarke. “Coolness can be excruciatingly curated – often it needs to be – but must simultaneously give the impression that it came together as if by magic.”

There’s also another definition of the word that might be the important bit. “Being cool literally means being calm, chill, not overheated, not het up,”says Dr Antonia Ward, chief futurist at the trends intelligence business Stylus. “And today, even in its aspirational meaning, the word retains some of that idea.”

“For me, ‘cool’ definitely includes a kind of calm,” agrees Die, Workwear!’s Derek Guy. “An unshakable mindset. The French have a word for this: sangfroid. It means a calmness that’s born not out of ignorance, but philosophy.”

According to the study, “cool” emerged out of the African American lexicon of the mid 20th century. In particular, the saxophonist Lester “Prez” Young has been credited with coining this usage of the word. Certainly, it has long been associated with the jazz scene. But even here, discrepancies emerge.

“Miles Davis might be the epitome of cool,” says the menswear enthusiast Henry Duffield (aka @henrythekidd_). “He looked cool, he sounded cool, he dressed cool, he released Birth Of The Cool. Miles was hedonistic, he was adventurous and open. Definitely autonomous. But he was famously introverted – and that kind of made him cooler.”

Nick Paget, the senior menswear strategist with trend forecaster WGSN, picks up on this last point. “The more creative and relevant someone is, the more they are introverted, quietly committed to their craft and unassuming in their demeanour,” he says.

Even if it remains hard to pin down, “cool” itself has transcended generations. “Cool has sticking power because it captures something other words don’t,” Pezzuti says. “It describes a distinct psychological profile – people who are bold, independent and socially magnetic. It gives us a shorthand to recognise and talk about a type of person that stands out in almost any culture.”

“[It] has inherent tension and ideas with tension are the stickiest,” Ward says. “Cool is a perfect balance of being up to the minute – or, in fact, ahead of the moment – while also being supremely unbothered by what other people think. And there’s something about cool that’s about being between the ephemeral and the timeless, or between making an effort, but not trying too hard.”

Which is something to mull over when it comes to getting dressed – where, once again, that other meaning of cool kicks in. “Anxiety is the antithesis to style,” Guy says. “Men who fret over historical correctness come off as wearing cosplay. Style is about knowing how to dress without being overly anxious about the act.”

Authenticity is also key. “Humans are generally really good at getting a vibe on other people,” Duffield says. “It was probably evolutionary advantageous to be able to work out if someone was being genuine. So, I think dressing cool starts with a bit of introspection about who you are.”

“The idea of cool now is definitely about you doing you,” agrees Lauren Cochrane, senior fashion writer for The Guardian and author of The Ten: The Stories Behind The Fashion Classics. “This has always been the case, but with trends churning even faster, the idea of only going for what totally appeals to you feels god-tier cool.”

“Being cool means having the confidence to continue wearing something even if it’s no longer considered cool,” Guy says. “You can still do this, so long as you know the historical language of dress.”

Guy gives the example of skinny jeans. “We are currently in a moment where slim fit is giving way to fuller silhouettes,” he says. “Yet, skinny black jeans worn with black boots and a black leather jacket will always look great, not because it was declared so by some style influencer or writer, but because of the history of rock legends such as Lou Reed.”

Dressing cool “often means wearing something that the audience doesn’t fully understand or appreciate, but still wants to,” Ogawa Clarke says. “That could mean it’s sourced from an obscure place or brand, but is in some way scarce or difficult to access. In other words, coolness must in some way convey mystery in a manner that also inspires desire.”

Perhaps it’s not even about the clothes. “We all know the feeling of perceiving that something looks cool and then realising perhaps it’s not the thing itself, it’s the person wearing it,” Ward says.

“A suit will not fashion you into a gentleman, just as a motorcycle jacket will not make you cool,” Guy says. “People imbue clothes with meaning, not the other way around.”

Ultimately, being cool is not something you can control. It is an opinion that is external to you. Not to mention it is “definitely uncool to study this list and aim to fit into these categories,” as Cochrane points out. “You don’t have to meet everything [on the list], and you definitely can’t force it,” Duffield says.

“It seems fair to say that if you present as wanting to be cool, then you are probably not cool,” Paget says. And for exactly this reason, a cheat code to cool is unlikely to land. There are, however, other aspects of ourselves that we can work on.

“Being a good or perhaps respectful, principled person is a crucial part of the puzzle here,” says Ogawa Clarke. “Even though being good and being cool are separate, they are not mutually exclusive [in fact, the study notes the overlap]. It’s only in movies that villains can be cool. In real life, there’s nothing more uncool.”

So, try to be nice. It might not be cooler than ice cold. But it’s getting warmer.