AchIEvING UlTImATE SUccESS IN PERSUASION: STORYSEllING IS BElIEvINGBut, when it came to those who had bought into the Paul-Is Dead con-
spiracy, here’s what they saw: The four Beatles dressed to symbolize
nothing less than a funeral procession, with John, dressed in white, as
the minister, Ringo, dressed in black, as the undertaker, George, in den-
im jeans and shirt, as the gravedigger and Paul (or, more accurately, Mr.
William Campbell, the guy who looked like Paul), barefoot and out of
step with the others, as the corpse.
Oh, and that Volkswagen parked in the background? If you look closely,
you’ll see it has “28IF” as part of its license plate number – which, natu-
rally to true Paul-Is-Dead conspiracy buffs, signified that Paul would
have been 28 years old at that point - if he had lived.
In other words, all these obscure hidden meanings were more important
to believers than the fact that Paul was actually shown alive and well
on the album cover. And, since this was in an era that was well before
Photoshop, it was pretty obvious that the photo was the real deal.
Again, this is just more evidence that the brain can’t really distinguish
between fact and fiction when a person has decided to buy into a story.
As a matter of fact, it actively fights the impulse – because it’s more
important that the brain defends the integrity of the story.
This doesn’t just apply to scurrilous dead Beatle stories. We all buy into
narratives in our everyday lives – and when those narratives are chal-
lenged, we push back against the contradictions. How hard we push
back depends on how invested we are in the particular story.
Think of someone who’s a rabid Republican or Democrat who’s con-
fronted with information that contradicts his or her position. How many
times have you said to yourself, when having a discussion with that kind
of person, “This person is completely irrational – I have to stop arguing,
there’s no point!”
Odds are you’re right. The person is being irrational – because the over-
all story he or she wants to believe in is more important than individual
facts that conflict with it.
Getting back to the research of Green and Brock, the doctors discovered
that it didn’t matter if a story was presented as fact or fiction; if the story