Coolness as a trait and its relations to the Big Five, self-esteem, social desirability, and action orientation

As coolness is often associated with status elevation and socially desirable valuation, understanding what entails coolness may prove useful in a myriad of contexts. In this study, we tested the two-factor model of coolness proposed by Dar-Nimrod et al. (2012), where Cachet and Contrarian domains of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality and individual differences 2018-01, Vol.121, p.1-6
Main Authors: Dar-Nimrod, Ilan, Ganesan, Asha, MacCann, Carolyn
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action orientation
Age
Age differences
Big Five
Contrarian
Coolness
Ethnic groups
Five factor model
Group dynamics
Irony
Perceptions
Personality
Rebelliousness
Self esteem
Sexes
Social desirability
Valuation
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Summary:As coolness is often associated with status elevation and socially desirable valuation, understanding what entails coolness may prove useful in a myriad of contexts. In this study, we tested the two-factor model of coolness proposed by Dar-Nimrod et al. (2012), where Cachet and Contrarian domains of coolness are comprised of 14 facets (e.g., irony, confidence). Participants (N=225) completed 120 items representing these 14 facets, as well as measures of the Big Five, action orientation, social desirability, and self-esteem. The findings largely replicated the two-factor structure of Cachet and Contrarian Coolness. Cachet and Contrarian Coolness factors incrementally predicted self-perceptions of coolness above and beyond the Big Five personality dimensions, action orientation, implicit self-esteem, age, and sex in a hierarchical regression. Cachet Coolness was the strongest predictor of coolness self-perceptions, with explicit self-esteem and Contrarian Coolness also significantly predicting self-perceived coolness. Findings suggest that the two factors of coolness capture elements of coolness that are not measured by common personality measures. These findings may have implication for studying the role of coolness in group dynamics and social relations across diverse age and ethnic groups. •A substantial variance in self-reported coolness is explained by two factors.•Self-assessment of coolness is best derived from 2 factors of assorted traits.•Explicit self-esteem adds to the coolness evaluations above these 2 factors.•Extraversion is the best Big Five predictor of self-assessment of coolness.
ISSN:0191-8869
1873-3549
DOI:10.1016/j.paid.2017.09.012