Just how powerful is storytelling as an influence tool?
I read this novel every December, like clockwork...
On my bookshelf sits the Penguin clothbound classics version of Charles Dickens 'A Christmas Carol'. One of my favourite stories of all time. I feel excited as I slip into a comfy chair with a hot drink, on a dark December evening and open the book at 'Stave one - Marley's Ghost'.
A day or so after I've finished Dickens's fairly short book, I feel like a different person. I've been out and donated or given in some way to a good cause. Why, because a belief that 'its important to think of others not just yourself' has been instilled in me. Interestingly, it gets stronger each time I read the book, and lasts longer.
Correlation or causation?
I can't say for certain, but if I were a betting man I'd put my last dollar on it being causal. In the run up to reading the novel and to Christmas I'm in full self-absorption mode. Then as I close the last page and bask in the warm afterglow it gives me my mind feels different.
It happens too reliably and consistently for it to be just a coincidental link between the book and my changed behaviour.
Sounds ridiculous
When I speak to leadership audiences about storytelling as a tool for influence I get at least a few sceptical faces. But that's fine. After all, it seems highly unlikely that stories especially those that are fictional can influence our behaviours.
The science says its not so ridiculous
When Dr Paul Zack, one of the world's most cited professors carried out a series of studies into narrative transportation theory between 2012 and 2015 he found what I found. By playing a fictional story to a group of people (who knew it was fictional) he was able to bring about hormonal changes (cortisol and oxytocin) in his participants. Not only that, the hormonal changes were linked to real world actions (donating money when asked to). And the greater the hormonal effect the greater the donation.
What is ‘narrative transportation’?
Narrative transportation is defined as being so immersed and absorbed in a story world, we feel as if we're physically, mentally and emotionally inside the story world. Some of the biproducts of this narrative transportation state are:
We create fewer counter arguments to what's being said
We're less aware of persuasive intent
Our beliefs and actions are more likely to align with those of the story characters
The Donations were causal
Dr Zack assumed the stories hormonal effect on his participants and the resulting donations must be a coincidence. So he split his group into two and gave half oxytocin (nasally) and half a placebo (nasally) and found something he couldn't argue with. The group that got the oxytocin donated 261% more money to a linked cause.
The power of the indirect
Unlike facts, figures and information, stories tend to go under an audience's influence radar. Like I said a moment ago, bi-products of being totally immersed in a story are: we're less aware of persuasive intent, we generate fewer counter arguments, and our beliefs are more likely to align with the stories characters.
Facts, figures and information, whilst very important to influence, are highly direct. We're likely to be aware of persuasive intent, and likely to generate counter arguments. Like the ancient Greeks' Trojan Horse, stories go under the radar and like the horse are welcomed in, whilst facts, figures and information are scrutinised at the gates.
Stories provide a bridge into your audience's hearts and minds
If you want to take your audience along with you appealing to logic with facts, figures and information is only part of the job. Yes, it satisfies the logical part of the mind that they should believe you, but without stories ability to give them a reason to care about your facts, figures and information you might fail to hit the influence mark.
The longer way round is often the faster way home...
