Storytelling is ancient and intrinsic to human experience. Before written language or print, our predecessors depicted stories in visual form. Researchers estimate early drawings found in a cave in Chavaux, France are at least 30,000 years old. After visual forms of storytelling developed, oral tradition ensued. Storytelling took on this form for generations, morphing into the written narratives we have today.
Why Does Storytelling Matter?
Storytelling has an innate ability to stir psychological emotions in the brain. Unlike fact-based writing, stories engage the feelings of its audience. The complex influence of stories on the human brain has forged a scientific interest into the cognitive mechanisms of storytelling.
Researchers have also found that people remember information when presented in a story form versus a factual form. People remember things better when told a good story. These researchers also discovered that the emotional impact of a story is unchanged whether or not the narrative is true or false (Hartung F, Withers P, Hagoort P, Willems RM 2017).
Princeton neuroscientist, Uri Hasson studies the neurological impact of storytelling. Using Magnetic Resonant Imaging (MRI), he found his participant’s brains began to ‘sync up,’ or show similar brain activity while listening to the same story. He calls…
