Speaker 1: Already, and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 2: Oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 3: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Friday,
Speaker 3: the fourth of July. I'm Sam Kazlowski.
Speaker 2: I'm Billy fit Simon's and I'm definitely not cool enough
Speaker 2: to be doing this podcast.
Speaker 3: Hey, come on, we haven't even gotten into it yet,
Speaker 3: but yes, as I find out, that's exactly what's happening, Billy.
Speaker 3: What's cooler than being cool? No, it's not ice cold?
Speaker 3: Is it telling bad Joe? Something like that? But we
Speaker 3: do know how to answer that question a little bit
Speaker 3: better now than we did a couple of months ago,
Speaker 3: thanks to some fascinating new research that's basically cracked the
Speaker 3: code on what makes someone cool. So today we're going
Speaker 3: to take you through what scientists learned after examining almost
Speaker 3: six thousand people across thirteen countries as they endeavored to
Speaker 3: figure out the difference between being cool and being good
Speaker 3: and then not the same thing.
Speaker 2: Sam, I think we should say from the outset that
Speaker 2: this isn't the typical kind of TDA explainer. But it
Speaker 2: is a Friday, and it has been two weeks or
Speaker 2: even more of a pretty heavy news cycle. And so
Speaker 2: we thought it's a perfect time to do something a
Speaker 2: little bit different.
Speaker 3: And in terms of you know, the thoughts that we
Speaker 3: always go through is who can explain this the best
Speaker 3: because they know the most about the topic. So sensibly
Speaker 3: was that it should be me explaining the cool factor.
Speaker 2: And I hope that arrogance is right up there with
Speaker 2: what makes someone cool not too far away. Okay, So
Speaker 2: before we get into what this study found, do you
Speaker 2: want to walk us through how they actually the scientists
Speaker 2: who did this, How did they actually go about determining
Speaker 2: what makes someone cool or not? Because it's such an
Speaker 2: intangible or subjective thing to assess.
Speaker 3: You would think, so they've managed to really boil it down.
Speaker 3: So their researchers from Chile and the US, and they
Speaker 3: surveyed almost six thousand people across thirteen countries, including Australia.
Speaker 3: As they didn't ask people to rate celebrities or influences,
Speaker 3: that was my first thought was who are the coolest
Speaker 3: people you know? Instead, they asked them to think of
Speaker 3: someone they personally knew who was either cool, not cool,
Speaker 3: good or not good. Then they rated that person on
Speaker 3: fifteen different personality traits and values using psychology scales that
Speaker 3: are already in use, and they've kind of brought all
Speaker 3: of that data together to make a recipe for cool.
Speaker 2: That's so interesting. Did they find that different cultures had
Speaker 2: different ideas of what makes someone cool?
Speaker 3: I mean, even you and I have different ideas about
Speaker 3: what makes someone cool. Because you said the word arrogant before,
Speaker 3: I really don't quite understand why you said that. Look,
Speaker 3: the research is exactly expected there to be this massive
Speaker 3: cultural and global difference, and that's why they deliberately chose
Speaker 3: countries from six different continents with really different cultural values.
Speaker 3: So they picked some countries that they described as having individual,
Speaker 3: dualistic cultures, like Australia and the US, versus what they
Speaker 3: described as more collective cultures like China and South Korea.
Speaker 2: Can you explain that more, because I would say that
Speaker 2: Australia and the US I don't know if I would
Speaker 2: describe them as individual cultures.
Speaker 3: Well, the basic rule that they've used here is whether
Speaker 3: it's a highly capitalist society and everybody's kind of pursuing
Speaker 3: success individually and trying to make as much money as
Speaker 3: they can and get far ahead. I see.
Speaker 1: So that's Australia and US exactly or you've got cultures
Speaker 1: that have more kind of communist or socialist structures in government,
Speaker 1: different ways that they structure their taxation systems or schools
Speaker 1: or health, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: But the cool thing here, get it, I get it
Speaker 3: is that the results across the world were almost identical.
Speaker 2: That's so interesting. So kind of found that exactly what
Speaker 2: makes someone cool in Australia is very similar to what
Speaker 2: makes someone cool in China.
Speaker 3: Exactly. There are the same character traits of cool people
Speaker 3: all over the world, and they basically boiled it down
Speaker 3: to six key traits.
Speaker 2: So this is the key headline. These are the six
Speaker 2: traits that if you carry these traits, then you're certified cool.
Speaker 3: I want everyone to think of themselves in their mind
Speaker 3: and be ticking things off as I read them out. Okay,
Speaker 3: be more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open minded, and autonomous.
Speaker 2: That's quite the mix.
Speaker 3: And the researchers said the pattern was so consistent that
Speaker 3: they could not find cases in which certain regions showed
Speaker 3: a systematically different pattern.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's so interesting.
Speaker 3: It's so interesting.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's go through each of those characteristics.
Speaker 3: Okay, so extroverted basically means that they're outgoing, they speak up,
Speaker 3: they project energy and excitement. Hedonistic means they seek out
Speaker 3: pleasure and enjoyment. They're the ones suggesting a spontaneous road
Speaker 3: trip or trying a weird, new, different flavor of ice cream,
Speaker 3: and it's kind of.
Speaker 2: Like they seek out that pleasure over something like pain.
Speaker 3: And over something that they're really familiar with as well.
Speaker 3: And powerful means they've got influence and command attention, not
Speaker 3: necessarily through a position of authority or some that they
Speaker 3: are given, but through their presence and through them kind
Speaker 3: of pushing into rooms they're not meant to be in.
Speaker 3: Adventurous is about pursuing novelty and taking calculated risks. Open
Speaker 3: means their receptive to new ideas and experiences. And autonomous,
Speaker 3: which I think is a really big one, means they
Speaker 3: do things their way without asking for permission, and they're
Speaker 3: very self directed. So yeah, it's basically me.
Speaker 2: Haha, they are basically some more than others. I would say,
Speaker 2: you've got the autonomous one ticked off.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: When I think of you, I think of autonomous.
Speaker 3: So everyone listening, what Billy means is that I tend
Speaker 3: to just go a bit rogue.
Speaker 2: But that's okay. We're working on it, aren't we. We are,
Speaker 2: thank you so much, okay. And then earlier you said
Speaker 2: that this research wasn't only looking at what makes someone cool,
Speaker 2: It also looked at what makes a good person. And
Speaker 2: they're different, and they are different. What did What were
Speaker 2: the traits of someone who is good?
Speaker 3: So a good person was rated as more conforming, traditional, secure,
Speaker 3: a warm, agreeable, caring about everyone, equally, conscientious and calm. So,
Speaker 3: if you think about it, cool people are the ones
Speaker 3: who break the rules, who seek new experiences, and who
Speaker 3: challenge authority. And good people are the ones who follow
Speaker 3: social norms. They're caring for other people, and they maintain stability.
Speaker 2: And does this differ at all between generations?
Speaker 3: It does. So baby boomers defined cool as just pure rebellion.
Speaker 3: Gen X was worried about working hard and playing hard,
Speaker 3: and more of that adventurous streak coming through. Millennials prioritized
Speaker 3: experiences and social consciousness, so standing up for what you
Speaker 3: believe in. And gen Z has made authenticity a really
Speaker 3: central aspect of coolness. So for gen Z, being genuine
Speaker 3: about your struggles and values is actually cooler than just
Speaker 3: being rebellious for the sake of being rebellious.
Speaker 2: That's so interesting. I wonder how much of social media
Speaker 2: and kind of how curated everyone's life became with the
Speaker 2: rise of social media has then played into now kind
Speaker 2: of the opposite of that authenticity.
Speaker 3: Well, I was really thinking about influences a lot during
Speaker 3: that part of the research. The report didn't address influences directly,
Speaker 3: but I'm cool, So here's my take on it. Aha,
Speaker 3: social media has basically become a coolness competition in that way.
Speaker 3: And if we think about those traits that the research
Speaker 3: says make someone cool, so adventurous, autonomous, open to new experiences,
Speaker 3: that's the content that does really well on social media.
Speaker 3: And there's also, though, this tension because gen z really
Speaker 3: values that authentic streak and they can spot when somebody's
Speaker 3: trying too hard to be cool versus when somebody's really
Speaker 3: embodying the traits.
Speaker 2: Yes, I feel like you can. I know exactly what
Speaker 2: you are talking about, but it's kind of hard to
Speaker 2: talk about without sounding mean because it sounds mean saying
Speaker 2: that you can think of someone who tries too hard
Speaker 2: to be cool.
Speaker 3: We feel like a bit kind of what the research
Speaker 3: was outlining is that it needs to be a natural
Speaker 3: streak rather than a forced effort.
Speaker 2: Where did this whole concept of being cool even come from?
Speaker 3: I was so interested in this part of the research.
Speaker 3: They traced the historic origins of the word cool, and
Speaker 3: they traced it back to African American jazz culture in
Speaker 3: the forties, where musicians used it to describe someone who was,
Speaker 3: in their words, emotionally restrained but also rebellious and creative.
Speaker 3: And then they say by the sixties it had spread
Speaker 3: to youth counterculture across the US, and according to the research,
Speaker 3: even in countries with completely different alphabets and languages like
Speaker 3: South Korea Turkey, people use the English word for cool
Speaker 3: and pronounce it similarly to how you say it in English.
Speaker 3: So it's maintained this kind of global meaning, but also
Speaker 3: this global language aspect of it too. Super interesting.
Speaker 2: So it started in jazz clubs and it's kind of
Speaker 2: gone everywhere. This might be a silly questions, No silly questions, haha,
Speaker 2: But why do you think that we care so much
Speaker 2: about being cool? Is it just because we equate it
Speaker 2: to be light?
Speaker 3: Well, researchers say that it serves a really important social function,
Speaker 3: and we look to cool people to be cultural innovators.
Speaker 3: They're the ones who are pushing boundaries. They're creating new trends,
Speaker 3: they're creating new art or music or film. They're driving
Speaker 3: society forward. And in economies that really rely on creativity
Speaker 3: and innovation, coolness has kind of become this status where
Speaker 3: people who take risks and who drive change are really
Speaker 3: rewarded for that.
Speaker 2: So this idea that kind of innovators or risk takers
Speaker 2: are more in the cool basket.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which we shouldn't take for granted. I mean, that's
Speaker 3: kind of a cultural decision we've made to.
Speaker 2: Although that's not one of the six traits.
Speaker 3: Well it's not directly, but the idea of being adventurous,
Speaker 3: or being outside the norms, or being confident and outspoken,
Speaker 3: all of those kind of lend themselves to creation of
Speaker 3: new things.
Speaker 2: Okay, And I guess when I'm hearing this, one thing
Speaker 2: that I'm wondering is I get what researchers are saying
Speaker 2: is a cool person and what they are saying is
Speaker 2: a good person. And I feel like they're kind of
Speaker 2: saying that those are two different things. Yeah, but can
Speaker 2: you be cool and good?
Speaker 3: Well, the research says that you can be both. Some
Speaker 3: people are both, but there's particular issues that arise when
Speaker 3: the two conflict. And so what they mean by that
Speaker 3: is there's this quote. It says to be seen as cool,
Speaker 3: someone usually needs to be somewhat likable or admirable, which
Speaker 3: makes them similar to good people. However, cool people often
Speaker 3: have other traits that aren't necessarily considered good in a
Speaker 3: moral sense. So if you think about like an antihero
Speaker 3: on film or TV, they're not seen as cool because
Speaker 3: they're conventionally good. There might be, you know, somebody who's
Speaker 3: in prison for something terrible that they've done. We think
Speaker 3: they are really cool character, but they've committed a crime,
Speaker 3: and a good person wouldn't have committed a crime because
Speaker 3: they're conforming traditional, followed the rules. So I actually thought
Speaker 3: about tech bros, like the really big kind of tech
Speaker 3: leaders of our world. They're considered cool by a lot
Speaker 3: of these metrics. I don't know if they're considered good though. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Okay, Sam, before we go, do you have anyone
Speaker 2: specifically who you think really embodies these characteristics? Because I
Speaker 2: have two in mind, can you.
Speaker 3: Go first to give me a sector? Think, who do
Speaker 3: you think is cool?
Speaker 2: Okay, of these traits, I think my answers are really basic, just.
Speaker 3: A wanting okay, Rihanna interesting.
Speaker 2: I think that she's got the autonomy, she has, the powerful,
Speaker 2: the adventurous, the hedonistic, like kind of going with pleasure,
Speaker 2: you know. She I feel like she hasn't put out
Speaker 2: music in a while. She's kind of just choosing to
Speaker 2: kind of take a step back, although she does have
Speaker 2: the makeup company. But anyway, I think she's very cool
Speaker 2: based on these traits and Harry styles so basic, but they're.
Speaker 3: Great examples I think universally known cool people. Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3: I can't really, I guess just things keep coming back
Speaker 3: to me. Sad just keeps coming back to I think
Speaker 3: I'm the coolest person I know. And you know what's
Speaker 3: interesting about it, though, is that I'm constantly teasing the
Speaker 3: office for not being cool. Who is every drop the handle?
Speaker 3: Every day there's you know that's not cool to weare
Speaker 3: and you're you have glasses and an asthma puffer.
Speaker 2: Sam, You're you're making yourself the victim and that's not cool.
Speaker 2: Maybe hah Okay, I think we will end it there.
Speaker 2: You are very cool, and I'll make sure that when
Speaker 2: we get out of the studio that everyone tells you
Speaker 2: how cool you are.
Speaker 3: What's cool of me? Cool? You guys listening at home?
Speaker 3: A beautiful weekend, everybody. We're going to be back in
Speaker 3: the afternoon with some headlines. Until then, have a great date.
Speaker 2: Wait before we go, you haven't said anything about whether
Speaker 2: or not you think I'm cool.
Speaker 3: I think you're good.
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