bottom line STORIES MAKE PEOPLE CARE
Emotional stories are poignant to us because our brains release oxytocin— nicknamed “the tenderness molecule”—as we empathize with the characters. Sad stories also trigger a release of cortisone, which helps us pay closer attention. And when we’re searching for a match between the story and our own experience, we use a part of the brain called the insula. It’s distinctly human; even Lassie didn’t have one. Te insula is what lets us think about “the moral of the story” and connect it to our own lives.
Once we’ve made that connection, we’ve turned off the critical, judgmental part of our brain. Now we’re far less likely to pick out anachronisms, mistakes, and inconsistencies, because we’re committed to the story. We’re letting it affect us and become part of us. Soon we’re donating, volunteering, vowing to return.
Paul Zak, a neuroconomist who teaches at Claremont Graduate University, showed his students a short video in which a father describes his son’s battle with brain cancer. Oxytocin levels in their blood shot up. So did their willingness to donate their payment to charity.
STORYTIME
Uri Hasson, a neuroscientist at Princeton University, co-directed a 2010 study that showed the brains of listener and storyteller actually coming into sync as the story was told. If the storyteller felt a certain emotion, the same part of the brain became active in the listener. Their brains melded. That’s deep connection.
THE PURPOSE OF STORY
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