Neural coupling and storytelling

Last week, our article was about how storytelling has worked for thousands of years to get a message across and have it stick. I got to wondering why it works so consistently, so I did a little research and here’s what I found.

Stories are fun or interesting or engaging or profound or touching or scary or, well, you get the picture. But why they ‘stick’ in our heads was an interesting question to me and my research taught me about the physiological and chemical changes that happen in our brains when we hear a story.

It’s pretty impressive what our bodies are capable of when we simply hear a story. Magical things happen. Areas of our brain are triggered that physically cause us to apply what we hear to ourselves. Chemicals are released in our brain that hook into the emotion of the story to help us remember it better.

Instead of getting too deep into the science here, I’m going to share this nifty infographic with you that does a great job of explaining it all.

So the next time you have a presentation to give for sales or training or, basically, anything, add in your stories and your audience will actually pay attention and remember what you said. Cool, huh?