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Eric Thayer / Reuters
Steve Buscemi: Cool or uncool?
Bug-eyed, neurotic Steve Buscemi played Mr. Pink in “Reservoir Dogs,” Donny in “The Big Lebowski,” and gangster Tony Blundetto in "The Sopranos” — three characters that exist in the pantheon of cool.
Or maybe not.
Ilan Dar-Nimrod, a post doctoral social psychology researcher at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, doesn’t believe the creepy Buscemi is cool.
On the other hand, his friend, Ian Hansen, an assistant professor of psychology at York College, thinks he is.
To settle the debate about Buscemi’s cool cred, the two researchers came up with an uncool, albeit scientific, solution: they conducted an empirical investigation into the nature of coolness, just published in the Journal of Individual Differences.
To get to the heart of cool, the researchers came up with three separate studies. In the first, they asked participants (353 college students from a large Canadian university) to submit words that described cool. In the second, they asked participants to rank how cool or desirable these qualities were.
“We wanted to tease apart coolness and social desirability,” says Dar-Nimrod, who is very aware that his last name is definitely not cool. “There is a lot of overlap between social desirability and coolness.”
In the third and final study, subjects were asked to rank their friends based on these qualities.
What makes a person cool? The Body Odd scrutinized the paper for suggestions. Although the following traits are actually more desirable than cool (according to the second study), these simple steps will make you what Dar-Nimrod dubs "cachet cool."
Be hot. When Dar-Nimrod first asked participants what words describe cool, he received myriad responses (1,639 to be exact). But again and again, he encountered words like "hot," "handsome," "beautiful," "cute," and "sexy," with an overall theme of physical attractiveness. People agree that being attractive is cool.
“Our research was kind of designed to see what goes into coolness evaluation,” he says. “What we found was that the dominant perception of coolness is revolving around social desirability and generic semi-gentrified traits.”
Be friendly. Dar-Nimrod believed that coolness would have a rebellious feel to it, a James Dean “Rebel Without a Cause” vibe. What he found instead was that most people believe friendliness constitutes cool.
Be personally competent (successful). Achieving good grades in school or holding down a secure job with a good paycheck feels cool, according to subjects. In fact, being smart or talented was the second most popular suggestion of what cool is (the most noted cool trait was friendliness or popularity).
Be pro-social. Participants believed people were cool if they volunteered or recycled or joined in socially responsible activities.
Other cool qualities? Trendiness, desirableness, individualism, confidence and, yes, a sense of humor.
What about the James Dean/Jack Kerouac cool that Dar-Nimrod thought he’d find, a coolness based on rebellion and fighting "the Man?" (The researcher believes he exemplified this as a teen when he bought dark sunglasses and started smoking.) This kind of cool, which Dar-Nimrod calls "contrarian cool," still exists.
“There is a smaller and different facet … which is the dark, historical coolness, revolving around counterculture, risky behavior, irony,” says Dar-Nimrod. “Going into the project, it is what I perceived as coolness. [It is] much less dominant.”
As for the Brooklyn-born Buscemi, a cinematic favorite of filmmakers Quentin Tarantino, Jerry Bruckheimer and the Coen Brothers? Dar-Nimrod still thinks he's uncool.
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Leave a Comment:
Accumulating data does not equal "science." As Alec Bourne so nicely put it: "It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated."
"Cool" is the last thing I think of when thinking about Steve Buscemi. It's more like "serial killer" or "psycho-path". He just has that look to him. Especially since Con-Air. The guy just creeps me out.
Lol. Girls like handsome successful friendly guys. Will someone please give these people a Nobel already!
Travis, you missed funny. lol. We like handsome, successful, friendly, funny guys. ;)
So what is the point of this story anyway? At least it sounds like they may have wasted Canadian taxpayer $$ instead of U.S. taxpayer $$. But "researchers" (particularly in social sciences) in every country have bizarre studies like this.
It doesn't even measure what's "cool" - it's what some college students claim to think is cool when they're forced to make a list. Like a barbie doll is "pretty" because it technically possesses the list of traits that make one pretty (and I've always though those dolls are "serial killer" creepy),
I alway thought "cool" was one of those "I know it when I see it" things -not some list of traits. The way a Supreme Court Judge once described pornography...
Cant tell you how many girls always wanted to date the "cool guy" in High School. Then after college the "cool guy" would come home fat and still a jag bag. Most of those girls ended up with the nerdy guy who treated them well. Glad we have a study done on what cool is. Give me a break.
I hope the author becomes a Doctor. Dr. Nimrod.
Only a Dr. named Nimrod could come up with this study.
That's alright M.A. Neither of these guys understand coolness. It's not a quantifiable attribute. Either someone has it or they don't.
Creepy, scary Buscemi is 'cool.' Sometimes extremes are 'cool' and....cool is rather, like, so yesterday. Nimrod is cool in a rather dorky way as are pocket protectors. And, yes, the concept of being 'cool' is very subjective, please note, however, who has had an article published?
No idea where the funding came from; one investigator is US, the other is Canadian. Might have been funded by an ad agency for all I know. Chupacabra - he is a PhD, says so in the article (he's a post-doc). With all respect to Dr Nimrod, I LOVE THAT NAME!!! One of the things I find most delightful about being in science is all the awesome names you come across.
I listen to scientists and their theories about this and that, and I can't help being reminded of my younger years when we would sit in a circle on the floor, passing around a joint. Under the influence we came up with equally ridiculous theories, without the high salary
Physical attractiveness isn't cool. In fact, it's the opposite. The coolest people out there are generally uglier than sin. Physically-attractive people better fit in the "Vapid", "Lame" and "Annoying" classifications. A cool chick should have a real butter-face.
nothing is cooler than than conducting an empirical investigation into the nature of coolness.
that'll score em some chicks.
They should study The Fonz.
YES ! The Fonz had a mix of the cool.
Mr. Pink is now, and shall always be, cool.
/story
Bravo! Could not agree more.
I would expect that there is a great difference of "what's cool" across social, regional, national and racial realms.
As for what's uncool: Ted McGinley is universal.
Steve Buscemi is butt-ugly but yes, he is cool.
On one scale, he's not the most physically attractive man in the world. But, he's confident, smart and talented, things which, when combined, overcome physical appearance and make him a very attractive man. There are a lot of people whose talent and personality make them attractive, even though in a shallow physical sense, they might not be considered attractive at all.
He's a bit goofy looking but I would NOT call him "butt-ugly". That title is reserved for people with all of these features: large Dumbo ears, an uni brow, and of course the dreaded Neanderthal face.
Nihilists would not believe Steve Buscemi is cool or uncool. Nihilists don't believe in anything.
Nice marmot
Shut the @!$%# up Mark, you're out of your element!
oh no Moheeheeko! ... you are entering a world of pain
@Moheeheeko - I do mind. This will not stand, ya know, this aggression will not stand, man.
This study wasn't cool, man.
Moheeheeko is clearly not cool.
Cool people actually get that Moheeheeko is an exceptionally cool individual.
Ice cold kind of cool.
The Dude abides.
CANADIANS!!!?? WTF do they know about Coolness. Dumb ass professors! Hows a-boot that Steve Buscemi, he is pretty cool, eh?
Thank you Rediculous 399---! It was my absolutely first reaction. No offense to my Canadian friends, but seriously?
some of the coolest people in Hollywood come from up north. Ryan Gosling and Reynolds come to mind and I could spend all day naming more.
As for Buscemi: He may not be traditionally "attractive" but ever since Reservoir Dogs, imo he is a sexy beast.
Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds are not cool. When I think of cool Canadians the first names that come to mind are Neil Young and Leonard Cohen.
Leonard Cohen is the coolest cat EVER! I've got my tickets for his next show! I'll take him over the auto-tuned vapid garbage that passes for music these days. Katy Perry anyone?
I am with Ed. Ryan Reynolds may look good, but that's it. Gosling thinks he's cool which makes him not cool. I read the article, some of us on here are cool. :-) I don't think I can Steve Buscemi is cool - but I can say I like watching him because of his intrigue. Now don't misrepresent the word, it's not necessarily a parallel to sexy which many get confused. The bottom line is if that guy is in it, there's something shady/badasss about the movie. This would make the movie itself cool. Boardwalk Empire - that's cool. Get it?
Cool Canadian... Remy Shand? Even if you don't like his tunes (though I do), just the name itself is cool.
This whole article made my day. It doesn't get funnier than this!
rather be dead than cool.
Take off, eh.
Dan Akroyd? cool. William Shatner? maybe.
What makes people cool is their complete individuality. They make their own path. Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis.....cool. I an Adam Sandler movie a little kid was crying because he wet his pants. Adam said "well, if peeing your pants is cool, call me Miles Davis". I'm not a big Adam Sandler fan, but I always loved that line.
Cool.........2 Kings of Cool....Steve McQueen, Paul Newman...... Newer cool... Johnny Depp, Jimmy Fallon, Zooey Descanel, Heidi Klum, Christina Ag. Oh yeah, Neil Young....Been cool the longest....
Pretty much all old western TV stars....Clint Eastwood, Gene Autry, Hoppy, Roy Rogers, Clint Walker....Dale Evens.
The "coolness" of any person relates to the level of positive influence they have upon your experience of life.
The cool are non-combative, non-argumentative and non-confrontational, they have opinions but can share them and defend them without denigration of opposing views. Since they are skillful in the avoidance of negative energies and situations, the time spent in their company is perceived as being "cool". They attract positive energy, which increases the potential for enjoyment of any activity.
The "uncool" demonstrate the opposite traits and time spent in their company is accordingly an uncool experience.
The cool already know this, the uncool do not. It is not an element of character that can be taught.
I agree - I also think this study missed the boat by asking people what they think is cool instead of observing how people react to cool. Cool is about the persona. A cool/uncool person either has it or they don't have it.
And what people tell a researcher is cool is probably totally different from how they act when they encounter someone who really is cool.
That stuff about the environment for example. Nobody asks someone their environmental position and then goes "Oh - OK - now I can think that you are cool". Normal people just react to the persona. Later on they might find out what the person thinks, which also might not be all that easy because most cool people don't go around blabbing about themselves. They're so confident, they don't feel the need.
Or as Ken Kesey said, "You're either on the bus, or you're off the bus."
Dear Mr. Mjolnir. Wrong again. How uncool.
Confidence. You ask a bunch of uncool people why they're not cool, and they'll tell you it's not their fault because they aren't much in the looks department. They don't don't realize that none of the richest and most powerful people in the world are the high school cool people. Shaun White? Cool or Attractive? Definitely Cool. Rainn Wilson? Cool or Attractive? Definitely Cool. I don't know. There's lots more. Sir Elton John, Bono. Confidence can make you a billionaire, give you all the sex appeal in the world, and give you the best parts on screen and on TV in the acting world.
A cool study performed by Dr. Nimrod. You can't make this stuff up!
Just one of those stellar moments of irony!
Exactly my reaction. Love it!
I was hoping someone would bring that up. I had a hard time reading the rest of the article because I couldn't get past the name Nimrod...
It breaks down to this: You want to be either "cool"...or..."hot"....you do not want to be lukewarm.
Anyone who thinks about, or cultivates their own "coolness" or "hotness" is neither.
LOL! Reminds me of a guy I knew who thought he was so hot. One of my female coworkers, listening to him talk about how good looking he was, asked him if he checked himself out in any shiny object. Completely serious, the guy says, "Well....yeah. Why not?" He was good looking, true, but the narcissism made him totally unattractive.
I always find it fascinating that I can meet someone and think they are drop-dead gorgeous, or just the opposite. Then once I get to know them and think back to that original opinion, oftentimes it has changed because of the person themselves. And my brain really has changed my perception of their looks. One of the crazier little human characteristics.
Beauty/attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder. When we connect with someone on an energy attraction level, we often "see" them as more physically attractive. Before I got to know the man who is now my fiance, I didn't think he was particularly attractive physically. While he's not drop dead gorgeous, I now find him very attractive and handsome. I think we do give off a different aire when we feel good about ourselves also. If we think or feel unattractive, we carry ourselves differently and our "look" is different. When someone starts to call you handsome or pretty, your "look" changes a little because of the energy shift it creates inside.
Depending on Steve Buscemi's character, he can be attractive or not. I'd love to know the man personally and see what he's really like.
Doesn't "Nimrod" have anything better to research?
I just can't get past the name Nimrod. Totally uncool ... but funny as hell!
Yeah, but the biblical Nimrod was a man of great power and influence. He stood against a weak and violent god-object, and that in itself is an extremely cool position.
Talking about cool is not cool. Ah crap now I'm not cool. This was a trap!
Leave it to a group of nerds to try to figure out the science behind "cool."
According to this article, based on how they describe cool, nerds are the definition of cool.
Unless they're not attractive.
@lemur: As a nerd, I state we are emphatically not cool. But we're proud to be nerds. Somebody's gotta perform all that skull sweat and do the hard math...
Personally, I always thought unattractive people who didn't care (not one's who thought they were or pretended to be, but honestly didn't give a @!$%#) were cool.
I'm ugly, but am not very cool with it. Therefore, I'm not cool in either eye (mine or the study's).
Cool just happens for those who are. If you have to work at it, it just proves that you aren't. But its like being tall or short or whatever, it just happens.
So is he cool or not?
He's cool. He's cool because he doesn't give a rat's rear end about their study. He's cool because he's 100% comfortable being himself, he isn't trying to be the "next" anybody, and because he is good at what he does. Whether he's trying to creep you out (he's VERY good at that) or make you laugh your fanny off (Monsters Inc, Armageddon) or just think about his character, he does it well. He doesn't pose, or posture, he's just, well, Steve Buscemi, and that, my friends, is cool.
Harry Dean Stanton was cool. Now he's just old.
Grossly flawed methodology.
You need to ask people for examples of individuals they consider "cool" then look at common traits.
Asking the people what traits are "cool" tend to get responses of what people think "cool" should be rather than what they actually consider "cool" in practice.
All of us know some kind of goofy looking guy who can be a pain in the neck but we probably still like him. So Steve Buscemi is really pretty much familiar to us in some way. Cool? Well about as much as your friend is to you. I think it's more about just having some Familiarity with the character. And yeah, Doctor Nimrod? You couldn't ask for anything better than that to start you laughing!
"Cool" is in the eye of the beholder. Steve's cool.
Ask a guy named Nimrod to do a survey with a bunch of graduate students to find out what it means to be cool? It was a flawed study from the start.
As far as Buscemi goes, his characters are really only semi cool. He really just plays the sidekick of the really cool characters.
My mistake, "Canadian" students. Worse yet.
And he makes sidekicks cool. Most of his sidekicks are more fun than the "cool" characters. Most of the "cool" people i've known i wouldn't give you a nickel for. The also-rans, however, they are the truly cool ones.
The people I regard as cool are smart, confident, open-minded, but modest. They don't brag and aren't concerned what people think about their looks, money or possessions, but they do care what people think about their character. Good looks are a plus but they don't make you cool.
Really? Dar-Nimrod conducted a coolness study. Priceless!
"Cool" is most definitely in the eye of the beholder. However, cool dudes, real (Clint Eastwood) and fictional (Jason Bourne), always exude sufficient quantities self assuredness, supreme calm and a non-aggressive stature (although they will kick the @!$%# out of you, if necessary).
I could not agree more; the author missed the mark on this one totally.