The Science of Story
In this post, our chief scientist Dr. Troy Campbell, a behavioral science PhD, marketing professor, and former Disney Imagineer, briefly answers your biggest questions about story, with science and practical recommendations.
1. Why use story?
Story is the way the brain most easily processes and remembers information.
Some scholars have gone as far as to say humans’ ability and tendency to think in causal logics and process information narratively across time events is the distinct component of human cognition. When done right, story connects pieces of information, which helps humans understand and decide.
2. What can story do?
Story creates meaning.
Words and ideas alone do not have much meaning. The stories behind them create the meaning.
3. What is a simple definition of story?
Story is “cause and character.”
Great academics such as Porter Abbott, who wrote the classic book “Narrative,” and Dr. Katherine Kelp-Stebbins, the world’s leading comics professor, as well as great storytellers from Pixar to the “South Park” creators have all roughly defined story as the causal linkage between the experiences of characters—in other words “cause and character.” Some have even simplified story just to the single word “because.”
4. What is the easiest way to tell a story?
Use the story spine.
Invented by the improviser Ken Adams and later adopted and popularized by Pixar, this story form takes the essential idea that story is “cause and character” and creates a template for events to continually cause a character’s story to evolve.
Here it is, just fill in the blanks. Once upon a time there was a ______. Every day, they ______. One day, ______. Because of that, ______. Because of that, ______. Because of that, ______. Until finally ______. And since that day, the world has been ______.
5. What do you do as a story scientist?
I help people better understand something that will never be fully understood.
Neither science nor anything else can ever tell us everything about story. But science can help us know
why story is so powerful, memorable, and clear
how to tell stories that better engage, persuade, and delight audiences
what type of story to tell in different situations
6. How do I choose the right story?
Often you should not choose one story, but instead tell a core idea through multiple narratives.
Use “multi-narrative storytelling” like Nike or Apple, who in their advertisements often tell many different narratives that are conceptually united around their one core story of “Just Do It” or “Think Different.”
Usually you aren’t trying to tell a story just to tell a story—you are trying to tell a story to convey a core concept about you or your idea. This core story is usually accomplished best through many narratives. So don’t try to find the one perfect narrative, and instead use the practice of multi-narrative storytelling.
7. How should I start a story?
Start your story with enough context to let the audience know why they should be listening.
This can be done by beginning the story at the ending or at least hinting at the lesson it will teach the audience. The brain needs know what it should be focusing on. For most business storytelling, the most useful place to start is with the goal or problem that your idea will address.
8. How do I communicate the value of an insight?
Use the story form of Goal → Insight → Action.
Humans’ brains are inherently goal focused, so giving people a clear goal to follow is useful and natural.
In the Goal → Insight → Action form, your brilliant insight is turned into a story in which some goal motivates the need for an action that is possible through your brilliant insight. It can’t be overstated how useful this story form is. Everyone from Steve Jobs to the creators of the best commercials you see uses it.
9. What makes a truly great story?
A great story has a sense of destiny to it.
In all good stories, characters change. But in the greatest stories of all time, characters change into who they were always meant to be. I call this story form the “Destiny Narrative.”
It can be seen everywhere from modern Disney movies to the ancient Chinese story, “Journey to the West,” to the best product advertisements that tell you to “be more you,” “let your adventurous side out,” or “unleash your inner potential.”
In these stories, people are often changing into more of their “true selves.” We love going to see these types of stories in theaters, and we are more personally responsive to stories that frame our own personal change as simply changing to be “more of who we already are.” This in part due our psychology needs for coherence, authenticity, and self-verification.
There are some issues and nuances with this story form, but when done correctly the Destiny Narrative can be incredibly powerful, persuasive, and entertaining.
10. Any other advice?
Story is everything.
Every moment of life, you are listening to, telling, or living a story. Gaining a better understanding of how story works could not be more important to understanding and engaging with everything.
