Elizabeth Winkler, "New Research Finds that Cool People Break Rules--But Only Certain Rules"

New Research Finds That Cool People Break the Rules-But Only Certain Rules

The exhibit, "American Cool," at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, showcases various incarnations of cool-from Walt Whitman and Frederick Douglass to Humphrey Bogart, Jack Kerouac, and Steve Jobs. It emphasizes the Americanness of the concept-its "earned individuality" as opposed to inherited hauteur. But what, exactly, makes something cool? Julian Wasser/National Portrait Gallery,...

This article from The New Republic examines what it means to be “cool” in American culture, in light of the findings of recent psychology studies.