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UlTImATE SUccESS GUIdE

was an “inside government job”) and “Birthers” (people who believed
that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S.) felt good about their con-
spiracies – even though both those ideas are very distasteful concepts
to many people. A fantastic story that seems to have a basis in actual
ascertainable “facts” (shaky as those facts might be in reality) gets the
listener excited; not only does it make sense of something strange, it
also makes believers feel that they’re in on a secret that has everyone
else fooled, and, thus, they feel smarter than everyone else. They also
feel part of an “inside group” - and that sense of belonging to an exclu-
sive community makes them feel more important.

Primarily for those two reasons, a great story has the ability to “carry
your brain away” – literally – through a concept that researchers call
“transportation.” Now, this isn’t the kind of transportation that gets you
to work or to the supermarket; this mode of transportation was discov-
ered by researchers Melanie C. Green and Timothy C. Brock of Ohio
State University^2 and it involves just how stories can impact your belief
systems – even if those stories aren’t necessarily factually accurate.

To quote the researchers, “...the reader loses access to some real-world
facts in favor of accepting the narrative world that the author has cre-
ated. This loss of access may occur on a physical level - a transported
reader may not notice others entering the room, for example - or, more
importantly, on a psychological level, a subjective distancing from reality.
While the person is immersed in the story, he or she may be less aware of
real-world facts that contradict assertions made in the narrative.”

To put that in plain English, a compelling story can be more important
to someone than the facts.

Want proof? Okay, check out this album

cover from the last album the Beatles made

together, Abbey Road.

Now, you and I might look at that picture

and say, “Hey, sure looks like Paul’s alive

to me – there he is, walking across the street

with the other three Beatles. Hey, shouldn’t

he be able to afford a nice pair of loafers?”

2 Melanie C. Green and Timothy C. Brock, “The Role of Transportation in the Persuasiveness of Public
Narratives,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 79, No. 5.