The Science of Storytelling

Introduction

In this article, we'll explore the science behind storytelling, specifically how it works in our brains and why it's so important to our understanding of the world. We'll discuss how some of the most compelling stories let us see inside another person's mind or into a fictional character's inner life (and why those kinds of stories are so powerful).

We are wired to be story-driven creatures.

We are story-driven creatures. Our brains are pattern-making machines, and our minds are like a narrative thread connecting the dots of our lives. We want to know what's going on in other people's heads, so we tell stories about them. We understand the world through stories because they explain things in an easily digestible way—they're a shorthand for understanding how everything fits together in this complex universe we've been dropped into.

Our species' love of storytelling is so ingrained that even when we're faced with something that doesn't fit into any story (like a random number), there has to be one: "That person must have gone crazy," or "That was probably just a mistake."

The human brain is a pattern-making machine.

The human brain is a pattern-making machine. It's constantly making connections between new information and what we already know, constantly trying to make sense of the world around us. We're always working out how things relate in context and order, whether we're aware of it or not—and because of this predilection for patterns, we naturally create stories about reality that can be used to understand ourselves and our place in the world more fully.

We understand the world through stories.

The human brain is a pattern-making machine. As the world around us constantly changes, our brains construct stories from what we see and hear in order to make sense of the difference between what we expect to happen and what actually happens.

We are constantly making sense of information by connecting it to other information—that's how we figure out that "this is food" or "this person might hurt me". The resulting narrative thread connects the dots of our lives into some sort of meaning-making framework that helps us navigate day-to-day life. We do this all the time with little effort: when you hear someone say something, your brain automatically starts building a hypothesis about why they said it based on prior experience and knowledge (if they're smiling while saying it). We also do this when hearing stories—we draw conclusions about characters' personalities based on context clues like their actions or dialogue; if there aren't enough context clues then we fill in those blanks using whatever stereotypes we have stored up as part of our cultural knowledge base (and if that fails too then there's always Google).

So why does all this matter? Because storytelling isn't just about entertainment—it provides crucial insight into other people's thoughts and feelings without ever having met them face-to-face!

The human mind is like a narrative thread connecting the dots of our lives.

The human mind is like a narrative thread connecting the dots of our lives. It's how we make sense of the world, and we're wired to be story-driven creatures. The human brain is a pattern-making machine: it seeks out meaningful connections between events in our lives by looking for patterns in data, stories and relationships. We are hardwired for storytelling—it's how we understand ourselves and others, as well as our place within society at large.

It seems that story-making is hardwired into our nature. Even from birth, we are wired to understand the world through stories. The human brain is a pattern-making machine, and stories help us make sense of what would otherwise be an overwhelming amount of information—without them, we'd be lost in a sea of chaos.

Imagine you're a newborn baby lying in your crib. Your eyes are just beginning to focus on objects around you; your senses are being inundated with new experiences every day; there's so much going on! It's enough to drive anyone crazy—but luckily for us as humans (and highly unlike other animals), our brains have evolved over time so that we can build narratives out of seemingly random events happening all around us every day: "This happened because that happened." Making sense out of these chaotic events is what allows us humans to function in society as adults who aren't constantly running around like chickens with their heads cut off!

When we encounter new information, the brain seeks to understand it by assimilating it into an existing schema or narrative.

When we encounter new information, the brain seeks to understand it by assimilating it into an existing schema or narrative. Our brains are pattern-making machines and so we make sense of the world through stories.

We also understand the world through stories — as William James put it, “the art of life is to find out what story you are in.” The human mind is like a narrative thread connecting the dots of our lives.

If it can't do this, then the brain creates a new schema and so alters our model of reality in order to comprehend it.

Your brain is a pattern-making machine. It constantly seeks to create meaning by assimilating new information into existing schemas and narratives. If it can't do this, however—if the schema or narrative doesn't exist—the brain creates a new schema and so alters our model of reality in order to comprehend it.

This process is called accommodation, and it's what happens when we read books or watch movies that aren't based on things we already know about the world (or even worse: when they are!). In these cases, your brain has no choice but to create an entirely new set of rules in order for you to understand the story at all; thus begins your lifelong adventure as an author-in-training!

Narrative realism is not enough on its own. We want a story that's true as well as realistic--one that makes sense as part of our story about ourselves and our place in the universe.

Narrative realism isn't enough on its own. We want a story that's true as well as realistic. It has to make sense as part of our story about ourselves and our place in the universe. We want intimacy and access to other people's minds, their interior worlds, not just the surface emotions or behavior they show us in any given moment (though those are important too).

We need stories that can explain how things work--why we do what we do, why the world works as it does--and we also need stories that explain why people behave badly: how evil came into being; how someone became so cruel or selfish or hopelessly lost; how someone could become so damaged by life. We search for meaning even when there is none whatsoever, perhaps because there has never been any meaning at all!

"Stories are a powerful tool for revealing our most fundamental human needs. They help us make sense of the world, communicate our values, and relate to one another in ways that are richly rewarding but often difficult to put into words."

"A deep truth can take us beyond the confines of our personal experience and make us see something fundamental about how the world works, but deep truths need to be told in fresh and original ways so that they don't become just another version of conventional wisdom or a cliche. We want stories because we want to know what's going on in other people's heads--we want intimacy and access to their minds, their interior worlds--and we get that from their characters' thoughts, feelings, desires and motivations."

"Stories matter because they help us understand ourselves better by helping us understand others."

Conclusion

Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal. It can help us to understand each other and ourselves, and it allows us to see the world in new ways