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All In The Mind

Consumer behaviour and the quest for cool

All In The Mind

ABC

Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Science

4.4785 Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

According to consumer psychology, there's a recipe for being cool. And surprisingly, the ingredients are similar across a bunch of countries and cultures.

So today, we explore the concept of cool: what it says about our values and how it influences us. But be warned — if you try too hard to be cool, it might unravel your attempt before you even get there.

You can catch up on more episodes of the All in the Mind podcast with journalist and presenter Sana Qadar, exploring the psychology of topics like stress, memory, communication and relationships on the ABC Listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

Guest:

Caleb WarrenConsumer psychologistProfessor of MarketingUniversity of Arizona

Credits:

  • Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
  • Senior producer: James Bullen
  • Producer: Rose Kerr
  • Sound engineer: Simon Branthwaite

More info:

Trying too hard or not hard enough: How effort shapes status

What Makes Things Cool? How Autonomy Influences Perceived Coolness

Cool People

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

ABC Listen, Podcasts, Radio, News, Music and more.

0:08.0

Christopher and Pixie Skace flaunted their wealth.

0:11.8

27 white limousines and the champagne flowed.

0:15.1

It couldn't be bigger than Pixie's blonde hair.

0:18.8

Spending other people's money and when they were found out, Pixie paid the price.

0:23.7

This sort of gilded cage that she was a prisoner in.

0:26.7

I'm Mark Humphreys.

0:27.8

To binge the full series now, search for ABC Rewind

0:31.1

and look for Skace, Fall of a Tycoon, on the ABC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.

0:37.6

Growing up, Caleb Warren was not one of the cool kids.

0:41.8

His words, not mine.

0:43.4

When other kids were like going out, drinking and being destructive and, you know,

0:48.3

having a grand old time and not worrying about what would happen the next day,

0:52.7

I was probably reading or studying something like that.

0:57.0

The thing is, it's not like Caleb's interests as a teenager weren't cool.

1:01.0

I sort of came of age in the 90s and 2000s.

1:05.0

And, you know, when I, my first time I was aware of what was going on culturally, it was like

1:10.0

Nirvana in the crunch movement., and like that was so cool.

1:17.4

And then by the time I was in middle school and high school and like the boy bands and

1:22.6

Britney Spears were getting really big, like I was already sort of indoctrinated into this whole

1:28.9

Kurt Cobain authenticity as everything ethos, and I thought it was like just pop show

1:34.5

and the least cool stuff imaginable. So his interests were perfectly cool. The problem was his

...

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