Which celebrities and politicians are cool?
Surveys about coolness, mothers and fathers, deadly sins, and deadly diseases.
Last week, we shared a new poll about which Americans consider themselves cool, and ended it with a little quiz: Could you identify Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bad Bunny, Elon Musk, Kanye West, Samuel L. Jackson, Serena Williams, Taylor Swift, and Zendaya on a chart of how cool Americans think 36 different famous people are?
None of the 10 readers who submitted guesses got all eight right, though six of the 10 correctly guessed that Samuel L. Jackson topped the list as the celebrity whom more than 70% of Americans think is at least somewhat cool. Only one person guessed that Kanye West is the celebrity at the bottom of the list whom two-thirds of Americans say is uncool. The other nine all incorrectly guessed that Elon Musk was the least cool of the eight. Musk is 12 percentage points more likely to be considered at least somewhat cool than is West.
I’ll talk more about the contest at the bottom of the survey, but for now, let’s see the full results.
We selected our list of 36 celebrities from a range of fields, including actors, musicians, and athletes, while including younger and older figures in each group. (For convenience the word celebrities is being used loosely, encompassing politicians who might object to the label as well as groups of people such as bands.)
Besides Jackson, other figures (or groups) who many Americans say are cool are the Beatles (72% very or somewhat cool), Michael Jordan (70%), Willie Nelson (67%), Clint Eastwood (65%), and Dwayne Johnson (63%).
Of the nine political figures on the list, only Barack Obama has more people say he was very or somewhat cool than that he is not very or not at all cool (55% vs. 34%). Almost all Democrats say Obama is cool (95%), as do 52% of Independents and 19% of Republicans.
The other eight political figures are all more likely to be seen as uncool than cool, including Bernie Sanders (37% cool vs. 48% uncool), Kamala Harris (36% vs. 53%), former Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk (33% vs. 56%), Ocasio-Cortez (31% vs. 39%), Zohran Mamdani (30% vs. 35%), JD Vance (28% vs. 56%), Donald Trump (27% vs. 67%), and West, a former presidential candidate (21% vs. 65%).
66% of Republicans say Trump is very or somewhat cool, as do 12% of Independents and 3% of Democrats.
Some of the figures asked about had considerable shares of Americans unsure whether or not they were cool, including Kendrick Lamar (34% unsure), Mamdani (34%), Sydney Sweeney (36%), Caitlin Clark (39%), Zendaya (42%), Sabrina Carpenter (42%), Timothée Chalamet (44%), Olivia Rodrigo (48%), the K-Pop group BTS (54%), and Shohei Ohtani (54%). All of those figures are in their 20s and 30s; the average celebrity on their list under 40 had 36% of Americans unsure as to their coolness, compared to an average of 15% unsure about those 40 and older.
Younger Americans are more likely than older people to rate many of the celebrities as cool. This includes some cases where younger and older people split over whether a celebrity is cool in the first place. For example, 56% of adults under 45 say Zendaya is cool, and only 16% say she’s uncool — a net coolness of +40. Among those 45 and older, however, 23% say Zendaya is cool and 25% say uncool, a net of -2.
For eight of the names, older Americans are more likely to say they’re cool. This includes several figures who are themselves old — Willie Nelson, the (surviving) Beatles, Clint Eastwood, and Bruce Springsteen — but also the younger figures Taylor Swift, Sydney Sweeney, and Travis Kelce, as well as Joe Rogan, age 58.
Who we think other people think is cool
But YouGov only asked half of our respondents about how cool they think celebrities are. We asked the randomly chosen other half of respondents a slightly different question: how cool they think the typical American thinks those celebrities are.
For some celebrities, there’s little difference between what Americans think is cool and what they think others think is cool. For example, 72% of Americans say Samuel L. Jackson is at least somewhat cool, and 72% think other people think Jackson is at least that cool.
But for most of the celebrities asked about, Americans are more likely to think other people think the celebrities are cool than to consider the celebrities cool themselves.
For example, 40% of Americans say Travis Kelce is very or somewhat cool, and 36% say he’s not very or not at all cool — a net coolness of +5. But 52% think the typical American thinks Kelce is cool and only 25% think others think he’s uncool, for a net of +27. That’s a 22-point gap between what Americans think and what they think others think, the largest of any of the 36 celebrities in the poll.
Other celebrities who Americans disproportionately think other Americans consider cool, relative to their own rating of the celebrities’ coolness, include Sabrina Carpenter (an 18-point gap), Taylor Swift (17 points), Serena Williams (15 points), Beyoncé (15 points), Bad Bunny (15 points), and Michael Jordan (15 points).
On the other side, 67% of Americans say Willie Nelson is cool and 15% say he’s uncool. That +51 net coolness is 7 points higher than the +44 net coolness Americans think other people attribute to Nelson, the largest gap in that direction of any celebrity in the poll.
Cool things
But wait, there’s more! We didn’t just ask Americans about which people they think are cool. We also gave them a list of 36 different things, from AI to golf to selfies to whisky, and asked them to rate how cool they are.
The results suggest the typical American is a bit of a square — my kind of square. The things Americans are most likely to call cool include science (87% say it’s very or somewhat cool), outer space (83%), watching movies (82%), and reading books (81%). Meanwhile Americans are far less likely to say several edgier things are cool, including beer (45%), poker (44%), marijuana (35%), guns (33%), and betting on sports (25%).
Because we thought it would be cool, we included “online surveys” in the list of 36 things rated for coolness, and found that 74% say taking online surveys is cool. Since all respondents are people who voluntarily signed up to take YouGov’s online surveys, we realize this particular finding probably isn’t representative of all U.S. adult citizens.
Like with celebrities, there are some big differences between which things Americans say are cool and which things Americans think other Americans think is cool. For example, 87% of Americans say science is cool, but only 66% think others think it’s cool. There are also large gaps for reading books (81% vs. 62%), classical music (72% vs. 44%), tea (65% vs. 52%), word games (64% vs. 52%), and math (59% vs. 39%).
On the flip side, there are many activities that Americans are less likely to consider cool than to think other people think are cool. This includes American football (59% say it’s cool and 75% think others think it’s cool), wine (54% vs. 68%), rap music (47% vs. 62%), marijuana (35% vs. 58%), and cryptocurrency (24% vs. 43%).
See the full results of this poll, including crosstabs by age, gender, race, and political party.
The reader contest
At the start of this newsletter, I talked briefly about the 10 readers who submitted guesses as to Americans’ coolness rankings of eight celebrities. But we’re all about numbers and charts here at The Surveyor, so I wanted to circle back again for a deeper dive!
If this isn’t for you, scroll down slightly for a roundup of other YouGov polls!
Now, for the true nerds: Here are the guesses of all 10 readers who participated, and how they compare to the rank-order of the eight celebrities in the contest. If you can’t scroll through all the columns, check out the interactive version here.
No one got all eight right, but reader Brent got closest. He guessed six of the eight correctly, while swapping the positions of Elon Musk and Kanye West. As I noted above, most participants in the contest incorrectly thought Musk would be ranked the least cool of the eight.
On average, the guessers underestimated how cool Americans consider Jackson, Williams, Swift, and Musk to be, and overestimated how cool they consider Bad Bunny, Zendaya, Ocasio-Cortez, and West to be.
I calculated a Spearman correlation between the correct ranking and each participant’s guesses, which confirmed the eye test that Brent was the closest. Congrats, Brent, and thanks for reading!
Charting opinions
Among people who were raised by a mother and father, three-quarters (75%) say their mother did more housework when they were growing up. Only 4% say their father did more housework, while 18% say their parents shared this equally. About half (53%) say their mother was more involved in their daily activities; 6% say their father was. 47% say their mother was more affectionate and 10% say their father was.
Majorities of Americans raised by a mother and a father say their father is who they inherited their last name from (87%) and the parent who earned more money (73%). Americans are more likely to say their father was stricter than to say their mother was (43% vs. 29%). (Jamie Ballard)
Quick takes
Sins: 40% of Americans say greed is the worst of the traditional seven deadly sins, followed distantly by gluttony (11%), lust (9%), pride (8%), envy (8%), wrath (4%), and sloth (2%). Greed is also the sin that Americans say other Americans commit the most, but one of the sins Americans are least likely to say they commit the most themselves
Hantavirus: 27% of Americans say they’re very or somewhat worried about catching hantavirus, including 35% of those who’ve heard a lot about the recent hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship, and 80% of those who say they’re very worried about catching contagious diseases in general
Driverless cars: 65% of Americans say it’s safer to ride in a car driven by a typical American than to ride in a driverless car, while 7% say the driverless care is safer
Abortion: 25% of Americans support the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and 49% oppose it
The buttons: Everyone in the world has to push either a blue button or a red button. If 50% or more push the blue button, everyone lives, but if less than 50% do, only people who push the red button survive. Which button would Americans push? Our poll of a viral hypothetical found that 64% say they’d push the blue button and 19% would push the red button. 49% of Republicans say they’d push the blue button — but when we asked a version with yellow and purple buttons instead of blue and red, 63% of Republicans said they’d push the yellow button
Elsewhere
Polling partnerships
Polling abroad
Polling in the press
Young men are souring on Donald Trump (Economist)
Trump Accuses Pope Leo of Endangering Catholics by Opposing Iran War (Wall Street Journal)
Janet Mills’s defeat in Maine isn’t an outlier. Americans across the board want age limits in politics (FiftyPlusOne)
She went no-contact with her adult son. Now she’s uplifting other estranged parents. (USA Today)
Admit It, Your Screen Time Is Out of Control. My Top 4 Digital Detox Tips Can Help (PCMag)
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Carl Bialik contributed to this newsletter.
Well, that was fun. Thanks for distracting us from politics for a bit!