Synthesis: This Is Your Brain on Cool

Anticonsumption pundits have long told us that cool is just a manipulative notion companies use to separate us from our cash. Marketers create the images; we buy into them. But the authors of two recent books suggest that more is at play than succumbing to ads, self-indulgence, or keeping up with the Joneses. We seek cool for the confidence and social connection it offers. Steven Quartz, a coauthor with Anette Asp of the newly released Cool, began investigating this topic with an experiment in his neuroscience lab at the California Institute of Technology. Kit Yarrow, a clinical psychologist, conducted interviews and shop-alongs with consumers for her book Decoding the New Consumer Mind.