Their coolness, as demonstrated through a survey of others

“Psychologists care a lot about social status. Who’s got street cred, who’s cool as a cat, that kind of thing,” you say. “So we’ll just measure that and tell the others in the experiment how cool each person is. Then we’ll put it to the test. How much more do cool people get laid?”

“Sounds good, but how do you measure how cool somebody is?” Vishal asks. “And don’t tell me with a thermometer, because that can’t even get ‘hot’ right.”

You laugh at his joke, shaking your head.

“Easy, man, we just ask other people. ‘How cool do you think Vishal is? Rate him from 1 to 10.’ Everybody gets it,” you say.

“Okay, okay, I’m cool with it. Especially if I’m a straight ten,” he says.

“No shot,” you say, sizing him up. “You’re like… a solid seven.”

“Hey, that ain’t shabby,” he says. “I’ll take it.”

“Okay, and now we just need to turn this idea into an experiment. We’ve got to randomize something.”

“Like how cool the person is. Or… how cool other people think they are.”

“Yeah, exactly! We can just insert our own confederates in the experiment who will randomly rate people at either a 10 or a 1,” you say. “Then some people will seem really cool when they’re not.”

“Sweet, then you’d see all the chicks that I would pull if I just had a bit more of that social clout,” he laughs.

“We don’t know if you’d get the chicks,” you say. “That’s the point of running our experiment. Also, don’t you have a girlfriend?”

“Minor details,” Vishal says, waving his hand.