More Empathy & Storytelling Research
Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling
By Paul J. Zak
"The power of storytelling in a practical sense – they have observed how compelling a well-constructed narrative can be."
"We’re often unable to acknowledge, let alone solve, problems in the world because we simply don’t see them. So the first way to begin addressing inequity is with empathy. When we can understand the concerns and plights of others, we can start to find solutions to these problems."
"Marginalized voices and perspectives underlie many inequities in society, so allowing those voices to be heard is fundamental to social justice literacy. We can begin with personal stories, allowing students to talk about their passions, whether it’s their own lives or the problems they see in the world."
Digital identity and everyday activism: Sharing private stories with networked publics
By Stacey Koosel
"Storytelling is presented as a potent catalyst for social work and social change."
"...gives a voice to the socially marginalised."
"Negotiating meaning on the micro (personal), meso (social) and macro (cultural) level."
"Everyday activism is based on the idea that sharing personal stories has the ability to reshape conservative, oppressive attitudes and beliefs. Personal narratives have a humanising effect and elicit
more empathy and compassion than plainly stated facts and demands. "
Storytelling/narrative theory to address health communication with minority populations
Haeok Lee, Jacqueline Fawcett & Rosanna DeMarco
"Human beings make sense of their experiences by telling fictional or nonfictional stories to provide coherence and meaning to the whole of their lived experiences. The findings of recent studies point to the fact that storytelling may be a particularly effective way to enhance health communication and promote behavior change within those racial, ethnic, and minority populations who possess a rich tradition of storytelling."
"In general, types of storytelling include: (1) personal narratives–stories that contain accounts of significant incidents in one's life; (2) historical documentary–stories about dramatic events that help people to understand the past, and (3) stories designed to inform or change the audience/listener's attitudes about a particular concept or behavior."
"The purpose of storytelling is not only to describe a situation but also to motivate people to act in a certain way."
"Further-more, storytelling expands our understanding of social determinants of health by illustrating culturally grounded messages and experiences of the target audience in their local settings. Therefore, it is possible that storytelling is a powerful way to raise awareness about the factors that could reduce health disparities."
"Smith and Liehr (2014) explained that the essence of their story theory always has been the story and pointed out that “The ontology [of the theory] affirms that ‘story is an inner human resource for making meaning,’ and the epistemology is based on the understanding that ‘middle range theory bonds research and practice in a method of knowledge development’”."
"The three interrelated concepts of story theory and the definitions of these concepts are:
Narrating embodied experience: Sharing stories of trauma and recovery
By David Carless & Kitrina Douglas
"In this paper, we explore our use of a dialogical storytelling approach to alleviate some of the tensions involved in researching another person’s embodied experience. These tensions concern the problems of (a) how to access another’s embodied experience and (b) how to represent that experience. We consider these issues through sharing creative nonfiction stories, alongside theoretical reflections."
"The question, for us then, is what kinds of methodologies allow us to produce representations that are most faithful to another’s embodied experience? How might we minimise the ‘distortions’ to embodied knowl- edge that Crossley (2007) identifies? We are therefore interested in considering how (a) different ways of communicating with participants during the research process, and (b) different ways of representing participant experiences, can support more potent insights into embodied experience."
"They highlight the role of the observer/researcher’s embodied positioning in affecting what stories are shared and how those stories are heard."
Communicating Climate Change: Are Stories Better than “Just the Facts”?
By Michael D. Jones
"... has long asserted the importance of narratives—or stories—in shaping public policy through public opinion."
"Narrative transportation is a measure used to assess the extent to which individuals exposed to a story are “transported” into that story. NPF hypothesizes that as narrative transportation increases the reader of the story will (i) have more positive affect for characters within the story; and (ii) will find the story more persuasive."
"Narrative transportation scholars Melanie C. Green and Timothy C. Brock assert that “the power of narratives to change beliefs has never been doubted and has always been feared”."
Recent trends in using life stories for social and political activism
"Participants in this movement believe in the transformative effect of shared lifestories. They recognize the value of social networking and the power of intimacy carried by individual lifestories."
"Shared lifestories are supposed to contribute to democracy
"Sharing these stories benefits both groups: it allows policymakers to make more informed decisions on complex issues (“Its direct and personal nature is powerful in raising awareness and bringing development topics alive”), and it empowers those whose voices it amplifies."
"We have focused here on the shift in emphasis from telling autobiographi- cal narratives to sharing them. As one facilitator puts it, “I use the term ‘story sharing,’ instead of ‘story telling’ to stress personalized interaction rather than performance”."
Sharing Stories: The Role of Personal Narratives in Community Mobilization
By Erin E. Robinson
"The challenge then becomes how does the researcher authenticate these stories as what they mean for community members and the individuals telling them not simply as a data point but as vessels for social change."
Transformative Digital Storytelling: A Framework for Crafting Stories for Social Impact Organizations
By Laura A. Peracchio, Melissa G. Bublitz, Jennifer Edson Escalas, Pia Furchheim, Stacy Landreth Grau, Anne Hamby, Mark Kay, Mark Mulder, & Andrea Scott
"Narratives are traditionally defined as an account of an event or a sequence of events leading to a transition from an initial state to a later or end state, which a storyteller conveys to a story-receiver."
"For Social Impact Organizations to alleviate these complex and multi-layered social problems, it is crucial for them to engage their many audiences including clients, donors, volunteers, and the community. Storytelling is a powerful and creative tool SIOs can use in their efforts to address pressing social problems. Addition- ally, recent advances in social media o er a growing opportunity for SIOs to tell and share stories, creating pressure to ensure the stories they propagate are engaging, memorable, and strategically consistent with their mission and objectives."
"A story must contain three essential elements: Characters, Chronology, and Causality (Bruner 1990; Stern 1995). Stories con- tain characters that interact with each other and serve as agents of cause and e ect (Zwaan, Langston, and Graesser 1995). Chronology or time is con gured in stories as episodes, each with a beginning, middle, and end, providing a temporal sequence for events (Schank 1995). Finally, causality refers to the relationships among story el- ements that allow for inference making; i.e., the characters’ goals lead to actions that result in outcomes (Pennington and Hastie 1986). Given the important, often emotional, issues faced by SIOs, their stories may be powerful and emotionally charged. But, for a SIO’s stories to be compelling and e ective, they must also communicate strategic content about the SIO and its mission."
"We propose that SIOs can best leverage the power of individual stories when these stories are linked to a broader, overarching mission-focused story about the SIO and why it exists. We term this overarching story the organization’s metanarrative. Stephens and McCallum (1998) define a metanarrative to be a story about a story, encompassing, explaining, and uniting other “little stories” into an integrated whole. An SIO’s metanarrative serves as a guide for the construction of each story the organization uses in its outward facing communications program, which are intentionally crafted with a specific audience in mind and designed to yield a specific behavioral outcome, for example, an increase in program attendance."
"Due to consuming information on digital technologies, consumers’ attention span for longer stories appears to be waning. Thus, many stories crafted by an SIO will need to be relatively short."
By Paul J. Zak
"The power of storytelling in a practical sense – they have observed how compelling a well-constructed narrative can be."
"A decade ago, my lab discovered that a neurochemical called oxytocin is a key “it’s safe to approach others” signal in the brain. Oxytocin is produced when we are trusted or shown a kindness, and it motivates cooperation with others. It does this by enhancing the sense of empathy, our ability to experience others’ emotions. Empathy is important for social creatures because it allows us to understand how others are likely to react to a situation, including those with whom we work."
"By taking blood draws before and after the narrative, we found that character-driven stories do consistently cause oxytocin synthesis. Further, the amount of oxytocin released by the brain predicted how much people were willing to help others; for example, donating money to a charity associated with the narrative."
"For example, my experiments show that character-driven stories with emotional content result in a better understanding of the key points a speaker wishes to make and enable better recall of these points weeks later."
"Begin every presentation with a compelling, human-scale story. Why should customers or a person on the street care about the project you are proposing? How does it change the world or improve lives? How will people feel when it is complete? These are the components that make information persuasive and memorable."
Social Justice in a Digital Age: Promoting empathy, equity, and cultural literacy through digital storytelling
By Michael Hernandez "By taking blood draws before and after the narrative, we found that character-driven stories do consistently cause oxytocin synthesis. Further, the amount of oxytocin released by the brain predicted how much people were willing to help others; for example, donating money to a charity associated with the narrative."
"For example, my experiments show that character-driven stories with emotional content result in a better understanding of the key points a speaker wishes to make and enable better recall of these points weeks later."
"Begin every presentation with a compelling, human-scale story. Why should customers or a person on the street care about the project you are proposing? How does it change the world or improve lives? How will people feel when it is complete? These are the components that make information persuasive and memorable."
Social Justice in a Digital Age: Promoting empathy, equity, and cultural literacy through digital storytelling
"We’re often unable to acknowledge, let alone solve, problems in the world because we simply don’t see them. So the first way to begin addressing inequity is with empathy. When we can understand the concerns and plights of others, we can start to find solutions to these problems."
"Marginalized voices and perspectives underlie many inequities in society, so allowing those voices to be heard is fundamental to social justice literacy. We can begin with personal stories, allowing students to talk about their passions, whether it’s their own lives or the problems they see in the world."
Using stories to reframe the social construction of reality: A trio of activities
By Sandra Morgan & Robert F. Dennehy
"...are typically lacking in the ability to see through others’ eyes. They seem stuck on their own point of view."
"That allow students to view situations from a variety of perspectives."
"Another outcome is the valuing of stories—students have not thought of stories as a managerial tool until these activities validate the use of stories. They then begin using stories and tend to illustrate points with stories following the activities."
"In our experience, stories help students retain concepts learned in class."
By Sandra Morgan & Robert F. Dennehy
"...are typically lacking in the ability to see through others’ eyes. They seem stuck on their own point of view."
"That allow students to view situations from a variety of perspectives."
"Another outcome is the valuing of stories—students have not thought of stories as a managerial tool until these activities validate the use of stories. They then begin using stories and tend to illustrate points with stories following the activities."
"In our experience, stories help students retain concepts learned in class."
"Finally, using stories in a class makes learning more meaningful and sometimes even fun for both students and instructors."
By Stacey Koosel
"Storytelling is presented as a potent catalyst for social work and social change."
"...gives a voice to the socially marginalised."
"Negotiating meaning on the micro (personal), meso (social) and macro (cultural) level."
"Everyday activism is based on the idea that sharing personal stories has the ability to reshape conservative, oppressive attitudes and beliefs. Personal narratives have a humanising effect and elicit
more empathy and compassion than plainly stated facts and demands. "
Storytelling/narrative theory to address health communication with minority populations
Haeok Lee, Jacqueline Fawcett & Rosanna DeMarco
"Human beings make sense of their experiences by telling fictional or nonfictional stories to provide coherence and meaning to the whole of their lived experiences. The findings of recent studies point to the fact that storytelling may be a particularly effective way to enhance health communication and promote behavior change within those racial, ethnic, and minority populations who possess a rich tradition of storytelling."
"In general, types of storytelling include: (1) personal narratives–stories that contain accounts of significant incidents in one's life; (2) historical documentary–stories about dramatic events that help people to understand the past, and (3) stories designed to inform or change the audience/listener's attitudes about a particular concept or behavior."
"The purpose of storytelling is not only to describe a situation but also to motivate people to act in a certain way."
"Further-more, storytelling expands our understanding of social determinants of health by illustrating culturally grounded messages and experiences of the target audience in their local settings. Therefore, it is possible that storytelling is a powerful way to raise awareness about the factors that could reduce health disparities."
"Smith and Liehr (2014) explained that the essence of their story theory always has been the story and pointed out that “The ontology [of the theory] affirms that ‘story is an inner human resource for making meaning,’ and the epistemology is based on the understanding that ‘middle range theory bonds research and practice in a method of knowledge development’”."
"The three interrelated concepts of story theory and the definitions of these concepts are:
- Intentional dialogue, defined as “purposeful engagement with another to summon the story of a complicating health challenge”
- Connecting with self-in-relation, defined as “the active process of recognizing self as related with others in a story plot”
- Creating ease, defined as “an energizing of the ease experienced as the story comes together in movement toward resolving”"
"The narrative theory is based on the assumption that humans are natural storytellers who understand and interpret their life experiences as ongoing narratives. Various branches of narrative theory explore the essential nature of stories and explain how stories/narrative messages help people make sense of their world and the process through which a listener/viewer constructs meaning from a narrative and what attributes make a narrative/stories interesting, transport, and persuasive."
"The core concepts of narrative theory and their definitions are: 1) transportation, defined as the mental process that integrates atten- tion, imagery, and feelings that occur in response to narratives. Transportation is a means by which narrative can influ- ence beliefs. The concept of transportation is drawn from transportation theory, which provides a distinctive foundation to understand the cognitive–affective influence of narrative communication. Inclusion of transportation in the narrative theory of health communication addresses the experience of people who are exposed to narrative and enter into the world of the narrator, which enhances the influence of the narrative; 2) identification, defined as an experience in which readers or viewers adopt the perspective of a character and see the narrative event through the character's eyes. Identification is an important mechanism through which narrative communication changes attitudes or exerts persuasive influence; 3) realism, defined as whether the story is perceived to be authentic and similar to the real world from the listener/viewer's perspective."
"Links between these three concepts have been explained as follows: 1) transportation theory explains how a story changes attitudes, self- efficacy, intention, and behaviors by breaking down cognitive resistance in the listener/viewer. This occurs through transformation and identification because the storyteller capitalizes on commonly used ways of interacting, which increases personal relevance and reduces counter-arguing for the listener/reader; 2) identification with characters increases absorption, reduces counter arguing, and thus enhances the listener/viewer's acceptance of the values and beliefs portrayed in the story. Individuals seem to learn more from characters whom they like, want to be like, or feel as if they know. Similarly, according to Bandura's (2002) social cognitive theory, individuals learn not only from direct experiences but also by observing others and modeling the observed behaviors; and 3) realism in a story increases engagement or transportation for the listener/ viewers. The more the listeners/viewers perceive the character in the storytelling and the events involving the character as real, the greater the likelihood of identifying with the character."
"The SNC theory posits that the quality, cultural relevance, and logic of storytelling affects changes in the listener's behavior, attitudes, and motivation through the interactions of transportation, identification, and realism. Effective storytelling emphasizes real, first person narratives with realistic visual and literary images of people's lives and environments."
"The core concepts of narrative theory and their definitions are: 1) transportation, defined as the mental process that integrates atten- tion, imagery, and feelings that occur in response to narratives. Transportation is a means by which narrative can influ- ence beliefs. The concept of transportation is drawn from transportation theory, which provides a distinctive foundation to understand the cognitive–affective influence of narrative communication. Inclusion of transportation in the narrative theory of health communication addresses the experience of people who are exposed to narrative and enter into the world of the narrator, which enhances the influence of the narrative; 2) identification, defined as an experience in which readers or viewers adopt the perspective of a character and see the narrative event through the character's eyes. Identification is an important mechanism through which narrative communication changes attitudes or exerts persuasive influence; 3) realism, defined as whether the story is perceived to be authentic and similar to the real world from the listener/viewer's perspective."
"Links between these three concepts have been explained as follows: 1) transportation theory explains how a story changes attitudes, self- efficacy, intention, and behaviors by breaking down cognitive resistance in the listener/viewer. This occurs through transformation and identification because the storyteller capitalizes on commonly used ways of interacting, which increases personal relevance and reduces counter-arguing for the listener/reader; 2) identification with characters increases absorption, reduces counter arguing, and thus enhances the listener/viewer's acceptance of the values and beliefs portrayed in the story. Individuals seem to learn more from characters whom they like, want to be like, or feel as if they know. Similarly, according to Bandura's (2002) social cognitive theory, individuals learn not only from direct experiences but also by observing others and modeling the observed behaviors; and 3) realism in a story increases engagement or transportation for the listener/ viewers. The more the listeners/viewers perceive the character in the storytelling and the events involving the character as real, the greater the likelihood of identifying with the character."
"The SNC theory posits that the quality, cultural relevance, and logic of storytelling affects changes in the listener's behavior, attitudes, and motivation through the interactions of transportation, identification, and realism. Effective storytelling emphasizes real, first person narratives with realistic visual and literary images of people's lives and environments."
Narrating embodied experience: Sharing stories of trauma and recovery
By David Carless & Kitrina Douglas
"In this paper, we explore our use of a dialogical storytelling approach to alleviate some of the tensions involved in researching another person’s embodied experience. These tensions concern the problems of (a) how to access another’s embodied experience and (b) how to represent that experience. We consider these issues through sharing creative nonfiction stories, alongside theoretical reflections."
"The question, for us then, is what kinds of methodologies allow us to produce representations that are most faithful to another’s embodied experience? How might we minimise the ‘distortions’ to embodied knowl- edge that Crossley (2007) identifies? We are therefore interested in considering how (a) different ways of communicating with participants during the research process, and (b) different ways of representing participant experiences, can support more potent insights into embodied experience."
"They highlight the role of the observer/researcher’s embodied positioning in affecting what stories are shared and how those stories are heard."
Communicating Climate Change: Are Stories Better than “Just the Facts”?
By Michael D. Jones
"... has long asserted the importance of narratives—or stories—in shaping public policy through public opinion."
"Narrative transportation is a measure used to assess the extent to which individuals exposed to a story are “transported” into that story. NPF hypothesizes that as narrative transportation increases the reader of the story will (i) have more positive affect for characters within the story; and (ii) will find the story more persuasive."
"Narrative transportation scholars Melanie C. Green and Timothy C. Brock assert that “the power of narratives to change beliefs has never been doubted and has always been feared”."
Recent trends in using life stories for social and political activism
By Helga Lenart-Cheng & Darija Walker
"The idea that shared lifestories can serve as vehicles of social and politi- cal transformation is not new. It dates back at least to the Enlightenment, but recent technological innovations have made possible what Enlightenment thinkers could only dream about. Today hundreds of lifestory-sharing net- works exist whose members are not only willing and able to share their stories, but who are also conscious of the potential communal effects of their actions."
"The idea that shared lifestories can serve as vehicles of social and politi- cal transformation is not new. It dates back at least to the Enlightenment, but recent technological innovations have made possible what Enlightenment thinkers could only dream about. Today hundreds of lifestory-sharing net- works exist whose members are not only willing and able to share their stories, but who are also conscious of the potential communal effects of their actions."
"Participants in this movement believe in the transformative effect of shared lifestories. They recognize the value of social networking and the power of intimacy carried by individual lifestories."
"Shared lifestories are supposed to contribute to democracy
- by improving representation,
- by educating people about their own and others’ roles in building democracy, by building new communities and strengthening existing ones, and
- by mediating between constituents and policymakers."
"Sharing these stories benefits both groups: it allows policymakers to make more informed decisions on complex issues (“Its direct and personal nature is powerful in raising awareness and bringing development topics alive”), and it empowers those whose voices it amplifies."
"We have focused here on the shift in emphasis from telling autobiographi- cal narratives to sharing them. As one facilitator puts it, “I use the term ‘story sharing,’ instead of ‘story telling’ to stress personalized interaction rather than performance”."
Sharing Stories: The Role of Personal Narratives in Community Mobilization
By Erin E. Robinson
"The challenge then becomes how does the researcher authenticate these stories as what they mean for community members and the individuals telling them not simply as a data point but as vessels for social change."
Transformative Digital Storytelling: A Framework for Crafting Stories for Social Impact Organizations
By Laura A. Peracchio, Melissa G. Bublitz, Jennifer Edson Escalas, Pia Furchheim, Stacy Landreth Grau, Anne Hamby, Mark Kay, Mark Mulder, & Andrea Scott
"Narratives are traditionally defined as an account of an event or a sequence of events leading to a transition from an initial state to a later or end state, which a storyteller conveys to a story-receiver."
"For Social Impact Organizations to alleviate these complex and multi-layered social problems, it is crucial for them to engage their many audiences including clients, donors, volunteers, and the community. Storytelling is a powerful and creative tool SIOs can use in their efforts to address pressing social problems. Addition- ally, recent advances in social media o er a growing opportunity for SIOs to tell and share stories, creating pressure to ensure the stories they propagate are engaging, memorable, and strategically consistent with their mission and objectives."
"A story must contain three essential elements: Characters, Chronology, and Causality (Bruner 1990; Stern 1995). Stories con- tain characters that interact with each other and serve as agents of cause and e ect (Zwaan, Langston, and Graesser 1995). Chronology or time is con gured in stories as episodes, each with a beginning, middle, and end, providing a temporal sequence for events (Schank 1995). Finally, causality refers to the relationships among story el- ements that allow for inference making; i.e., the characters’ goals lead to actions that result in outcomes (Pennington and Hastie 1986). Given the important, often emotional, issues faced by SIOs, their stories may be powerful and emotionally charged. But, for a SIO’s stories to be compelling and e ective, they must also communicate strategic content about the SIO and its mission."
"We propose that SIOs can best leverage the power of individual stories when these stories are linked to a broader, overarching mission-focused story about the SIO and why it exists. We term this overarching story the organization’s metanarrative. Stephens and McCallum (1998) define a metanarrative to be a story about a story, encompassing, explaining, and uniting other “little stories” into an integrated whole. An SIO’s metanarrative serves as a guide for the construction of each story the organization uses in its outward facing communications program, which are intentionally crafted with a specific audience in mind and designed to yield a specific behavioral outcome, for example, an increase in program attendance."
"Due to consuming information on digital technologies, consumers’ attention span for longer stories appears to be waning. Thus, many stories crafted by an SIO will need to be relatively short."