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Story Brain: The Science Behind Stories

by KingOfContentMarketing
2 replies
Here's an article I just added to the Storytelling sticky. Lifehacker looks at the science behind stories and why they work.

The Science of Storytelling: Why Telling a Story is the Most Powerful Way to Activate Our Brains

Here's an excerpt:

"If we listen to a powerpoint presentation with boring bullet points, a certain part in the brain gets activated. Scientists call this Broca's area and Wernicke's area. Overall, it hits our language processing parts in the brain, where we decode words into meaning. And that's it, nothing else happens.

When we are being told a story, things change dramatically. Not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated, but any other area in our brain that we would use when experiencing the events of the story are too.

If someone tells us about how delicious certain foods were, our sensory cortex lights up. If it's about motion, our motor cortex gets active:
"Metaphors like "The singer had a velvet voice" and "He had leathery hands" roused the sensory cortex. […] Then, the brains of participants were scanned as they read sentences like "John grasped the object" and "Pablo kicked the ball." The scans revealed activity in the motor cortex, which coordinates the body's movements."
A story can put your whole brain to work. And yet, it gets better..."
#brain #science #stories #story
  • Profile picture of the author Austin80ss
    Great news, did you really thought that it's not stimulating brain activity?
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  • Profile picture of the author sethczerepak
    Fascinating article. I like the part about simple stories being the best. Just look at Hemingway's work, an old man catches a big fish and sharks eat it before he gets it ashore. Sounds lame, but Hemingway turned it into a masterpiece.

    For sales copy, I usually reference the "Hero's journey," with my copywriting students. It's still the most powerful story type, people never get tired of it. The entire Star Wars saga, the Matrixx and its sequals, Fight Club, Lord of the Rings and everything friggin' thing that comes out of Disney...all follow the hero's journey.

    Simple story, strong characters and appeal to the basic human emotions.

    Thanks for sharing.
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