The science of storytelling - what Scientific American says about a 'good yarn'

[Kristine]

the full article is here:  http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-secrets-of-storytelling

Although not a new idea, going back to the psychological roots of story telling when you are stuck might be one way of finding a way out of a technical or narrative problem.

Key Concepts

   * Storytelling is a human universal, and common themes appear in tales throughout history and all over the the world.
    * These characteristics of stories, and our natural affinity toward them, reveal clues about our evolutionary history and the roots of emotion and empathy in the mind.
    * By studying narrative’s power to influence beliefs, researchers are discovering how we analyze information and accept new ideas.

Here are some excerpts:

To study storytelling, scientists must first define what constitutes a story, and that can prove tricky. Because there are so many diverse forms, scholars often define story structure, known as narrative, by explaining what it is not. Exposition contrasts with narrative by being a simple, straightforward explanation, such as a list of facts or an encyclopedia entry. Another standard approach defines narrative as a series of causally linked events that unfold over time. A third definition hinges on the typical narrative’s subject matter: the interactions of intentional agents—characters with minds—who possess various motivations....the best stories—those retold through generations and translated into other languages—do more than simply present a believable picture. These tales captivate their audience, whose emotions can be inextricably tied to those of the story’s characters. Such immersion is a state psychologists call “narrative transport.”

...research by Green has found that people who perform better on tests of empathy, or the capacity to perceive another person’s emotions, become more easily transported regardless of the story. “There seems to be a reasonable amount of variation, all the way up to people who can get swept away by a Hallmark commercial,” Green says....Empathy is part of the larger ability humans have to put themselves in another person’s shoes: we can attribute mental states—awareness, intent—to another entity. Theory of mind, as this trait is known, is crucial to social interaction and communal living—and to understanding stories.

Perhaps because theory of mind is so vital to social living, once we possess it we tend to imagine minds everywhere, making stories out of everything. A classic 1944 study by Fritz Heider and Mary-Ann Simmel, then at Smith College, elegantly demonstrated this tendency. The psychologists showed people an animation of a pair of triangles and a circle moving around a square and asked the participants what was happening. The subjects described the scene as if the shapes had intentions and motivations—for example, “The circle is chasing the triangles.” Many studies since then have confirmed the human predilection to make characters and narratives out of whatever we see in the world around us.

But what could be the evolutionary advantage of being so prone to fantasy? “One might have expected natural selection to have weeded out any inclination to engage in imaginary worlds rather than the real one,” writes Steven Pinker, a Harvard University evolutionary psychologist, in the April 2007 issue of Philosophy and Literature. Pinker goes on to argue against this claim, positing that stories are an important tool for learning and for developing relationships with others in one’s social group. And most scientists are starting to agree: stories have such a powerful and universal appeal that the neurological roots of both telling tales and enjoying them are probably tied to crucial parts of our social cognition.

As our ancestors evolved to live in groups, the hypothesis goes, they had to make sense of increasingly complex social relationships.  Living in a community requires keeping tabs on who the group members are and what they are doing. What better way to spread such information than through storytelling?

Anthropologists note that storytelling could have also persisted in human culture because it promotes social cohesion among groups and serves as a valuable method to pass on knowledge to future generations. But some psychologists are starting to believe that stories have an important effect on individuals as well—the imaginary world may serve as a proving ground for vital social skills.

In support for the idea that stories act as practice for real life are imaging studies that reveal similar brain ac­tivity during viewings of real people and animated cha­racters. In 2007 Mar conducted a study using Waking Life, a 2001 film in which live footage of actors was traced so that the characters appear to be animated drawings. Mar used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan volunteers’ brains as they watched matching footage of the real actors and the corresponding animated characters. During the real footage, brain activity spiked strongly in the superior temporal sulcus and the temporoparietal junction, areas associated with processing biological motion. The same areas lit up to a lesser extent for the animated footage. “This difference in brain activation could be how we distinguish between fantasy and reality,” Mar says.

As psychologists probe our love of stories for clues about our evolutionary history, other researchers have begun examining the themes and character types that appear consistently in narratives from all cultures. Their work is revealing universal similarities that may reflect a shared, evolved human psyche.

“You do find these commonalities,” Gottschall says. He is one of several scholars, known informally as literary Darwinists, who assert that story themes do not simply spring from each specific culture. Instead the literary Darwinists propose that stories from around the world have universal themes reflecting our common underlying biology.

“We couldn’t even find one culture that had more emphasis on male beauty,” Gottschall notes, explaining that the study sample had three times as many male as compared with female main characters and six times as many references to female beauty as to male beauty. That difference in gender stereotypes, he suggests, may reflect the classic Darwinian emphasis on reproductive health in women, signified by youth and beauty, and on the desirable male ability to provide for a family, signaled by physical power and success.

Other common narrative themes reveal our basic wants and needs. “Narrative involves agents pursuing some goal,” says Patrick Colm Hogan, professor of English and comparative literature at the University of Connecticut. “The standard goals are partially a result of how our emotion systems are set up.”

The power of stories does not stop with their ability to reveal the workings of our minds. Narrative is also a potent persuasive tool, according to Hogan and other researchers, and it has the ability to shape beliefs and change minds.  Advertisers have long taken advantage of narrative persuasiveness by sprinkling likable characters or funny stories into their commercials.

As researchers continue to investigate storytelling’s power and pervasiveness, they are also looking for ways to harness that power. Some such as Green are studying how stories can have applications in promoting positive health messages. “A lot of problems are behaviorally based,” Green says, pointing to research documenting the influence of Hollywood films on smoking habits among teens. And Mar and Oatley want to further examine how stories can enhance social skills by acting as simulators for the brain, which may turn the idea of the socially crippled bookworm on its head.

One thing is clear—although research on stories has only just begun, it has already turned up a wealth of information about the social roots of the human mind—and, in science, that’s a happy ending.

[meg_evonne]

ty for sharing, kristine.  Of course, that article, lead to another one, etc, and now I am seriously behind in my work!  Now they need to do a study on modern sci fi story telling to see if the industry is having an effect on those male/female hero ratios and on the beauty of male vs female and whether some of our normal body type heros (female) are changing the perceptions of modern readers.

You never know, perhaps Wonder Woman and Supergirl laid the changing social path for our female politicians and business leaders as being acceptable and successful at their callings.  :-)

[Kristine]

there has always been a question if life reflects art or does art reflect life.  I always thought it was a give and take process where a writer will see something interesting/unusual and write about it then when someone else (possibley on the other side of the world) picks up that book and is inspired in thier own way by what they read and takes action accordingly.

My sister has a PHD in astro physics - one of her favorite authors as a child was Heinlein's juvinile books (Have spacesuit will travel, The Star Beast, The Rolling Stones...etc)that had a suprising emphasis on science.  She does credit the books as having an influence on her interestes when she was in school.

[Uilos]

there has always been a question if life reflects art or does art reflect life.  I always thought it was a give and take process where a writer will see something interesting/unusual and write about it then when someone else (possibley on the other side of the world) picks up that book and is inspired in thier own way by what they read and takes action accordingly.

My sister has a PHD in astro physics - one of her favorite authors as a child was Heinlein's juvinile books (Have spacesuit will travel, The Star Beast, The Rolling Stones...etc)that had a suprising emphasis on science.  She does credit the books as having an influence on her interestes when she was in school.

I think it's cyclical. Life reflects Art reflects Life.  But it runs the risk of "the idea becoming the institution" or self parody

Example: The rap movement in the 80's and 90's, people like Tupac, Snoop and Biggie talking about growing up in the streets and committing crimes because that was the only avenue they had available to them. They sang the songs of their life and their beliefs. The children who listened to them however, took this to mean that if they lead those lives like them, they would be rich and popular as well, and it shows in the music that they bring out, which is a shallow, conformist version of that which came before them.

I tried to think of a positive Life/Art cycle, but I am far too medicated to come up with one

[Kristine]

I think it's cyclical. Life reflects Art reflects Life.  But it runs the risk of "the idea becoming the institution" or self parody

I tried to think of a positive Life/Art cycle, but I am far too medicated to come up with one

I think the example of science fiction inspiring scientists or the people who would try to aspire to become like a good character in fiction or TV.  Pretty sure most artists know people with the traits they write about - so they write a character and somewhere out there a person tries to become the image of that character.  Art (or its step child Entertainment) is sometimes more of a parent for an abused or neglected child more than the person who is supposed to be taking care of it.  This sounds sad but without that stimulus that same person would have nothing to guild them. 

[meg_evonne]

I wrote a long (really long) historical novel on the early Plantagenets where I had Henry II discussing with the troubadours and historians, who were attracted to Louis and Eleanor's court in Pointers, a similar question. 

Eleanor's grandfather had encouraged the discussion and some feel the Arthurian legends were born of just this type of situation. 

My final take was:

The historian's thought art followed events.
The troubadour thought events followed art.
My take on Henry II's youthful viewpoint, was that as a politician he didn't care as long as it got the results he wanted--he'd push them both the direction he wanted when he had the power and influence to do so.  Henry II was instrumental in re-establishing the court systems of England that his grandfather had begun.  In fact, it was carried further yet after his death with the first Magna Carta. 

I painted the whole thing as the first political spin machine at work.   Chicken or the Egg--the question will never be answered, I suppose.

[3by2]

Fiction Rule of Thumb from http://xkcd.com/

[meg_evonne]

Hey, haven't seen you around recently!  Probably my brain farting....

I absolutely love your graph!!!