Why Extroverts Are Cool and Why Introverts Are Not?

Our definition of a being “cool” have been used to describe a person being calm under pressure or someone who finesse an activity with seemingly effortless energy and nonchalant attitude. And someone who is the opposite of cool might seem anxious, weird, or easily overwhelmed, making them less desirable than their cool peers. The list goes on for the usage of the term “cool” but what exactly does being cool actually mean?

As it turns out, scientifically, being “cool” has some dermatological truth to it. Among other #personality trait tests, researchers used skin conductance to determine the physiological reaction of our body to various stimuli. Researchers recorded how much people sweat in response to noise, strong emotions, etc., and concluded that high-reactive introverts sweat more as compared to their low-reactive extrovert peers.

“[Extroverts’ skin] is literally ‘thicker,’ more impervious to stimuli, cooler to touch. In fact, according to some of the scientists I spoke to, this is where our notion of being socially ‘cool’ comes from; the lower-reactive you are, the cooler your skin, the cooler you are,” wrote Susan Cain¹.

In common social gatherings, alcoholic drinks are almost always present, even required, to keep the edge off to help with social anxiety by lowering our levels of arousal, “cooling” the attendees down. Similarly, wearing dark sunglasses, even when its not sunny, hides the dilation of our eyes and covers part of our facial expressions which has the effect on people that magically makes the wearer cooler. Another, the slang term wearing “ice”, which refers to expensive jewelries worn as an accessory such as chain necklace or ring, is not a coincidence that the term is related to coolness. As Cain puts it, “Maybe we’ve adopted dark glasses, relaxed body language, and alcohol as signifiers precisely because they camouflage signs of a nervous system on overdrive.” Early U.S. Astronauts consider having a low heart rate, which is related to low reactivity, as a status symbol. Lieutenant Colonel John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth and was a presidential candidate in 1984, was known by his comrades as having a super cool pulse rate during liftoff of only 110 beats per minute–just above the normal heart rate.

Furthermore, polygraphs, more commonly known as lie detector test, are partially skin conductance tests. They operate on the belief that lying causes people to feel anxious which triggers their skin to sweat uncontrollably. “Incidentally, sociopaths lie at the extreme end of this coolness barometer”, stated Cain, “with extremely low levels of arousal, skin conductance, and anxiety. There is some evidence that sociopaths have damaged amygdalae.”

On the bright side, the lack of coolness comes with a benefit. For instance, blushing after an embarrassing incident makes people look sincere, trustworthy and is more likely to be forgiven when they have done wrong. Conversely, having a nonchalant attitude might seem offensive to others or insensitive for lack of showing emotions.

Resources