Stories: A Neurological Overview
When we read a great story, a bunch of things happens inside our brains. One
process which is triggered is mirroring. Say we’re listening to a story out
loud, the parts in our brains that would be triggering are very similar to those
that trigger in the person who tells the story. Everyone who is around to listen
will be more or less on the same wavelength psychologically. This helps to
connect the person experiencing the story with the person telling the story.
Meanwhile, this is also activating what is called neural coupling. If you’ve
ever listened to someone telling you a story and it reminded you of something
else that you heard, such as a statistic or even another story, then you have
experienced neural coupling. Basically, experiencing a story allows us to then
connect the ideas and actions in the story to the ideas and actions that we
have in our minds. So, everyone listening to the same story are all having the
same regions of their brains activated, but the neural coupling is what
personalizes our own response to the story. By slotting the story, we hear into
our own thoughts and understanding of the world, and neural coupling allows
us to better retain and appreciate the stories we hear. Listening to facts
without a narrative structure activates two regions in the brain, yet the
process of neural coupling allows for stories to activate many regions.
Finally, the body also releases chemicals depending on the content of the
story. The most common chemical to be released is dopamine, which triggers
a pleasurable feeling and one that makes a story easier to recall. A straight
fact or ad copy doesn’t release dopamine and therefore is harder to recall at a
later date. While the effects of dopamine release may not be perceptible
within consciousness, the brain itself is happier for having it released, and
this creates a connection between the information in the story and a feeling of
positivity. In many ways, this is the same reason your dog learns to sit when
you use treats to train it. When the dog hears you say “sit” and it performs the
corresponding action, it is rewarded with a treat. When our brains recall what
we heard in a story, they are then rewarded with the treat of dopamine. The
fact that recollection of information is improved through storytelling makes
StorySelling a must in your campaigns.
But dopamine isn’t the only chemical that can be produced through hearing
or reading a good story. We are able to control the emotional response in our