Some Of The Brains Default Positions - VI Better With Stories Than Processing Data

You will remember the impact of a good story more than the dot points in a PowerPoint and/or heaps of data in a manual.
"...awaking the good in people is done best with stories, music and freshly baked cookies than flowcharts and PowerPoint presentation..."
Annette Simmons, 2002

"...the brain will recall stories 22 times better than simple facts..."
Stanford University as quoted by CMI, 2023

Stories make the emotional connections
"...You can preach logic and numbers all day long, and while people will understand it, they don't get excited and don't necessarily understand the message behind it..."
Jack Percy as quoted by Jeff Walters, 2014

From the start of mankind, storytelling has been used to make sense of any situation plus to transfer information, knowledge and wisdom. All the major religious books use storytelling.

Storytelling can be used to create a positive picture of the future and the brain likes this as it provides certainty.

Furthermore, based on the context and words used, storytelling can manipulate the audience, ie words can create expectations.

The power of stories lies in

- educating by passing on data, information, knowledge, wisdom, etc

- providing links with emotions

- making sense of uncertainty

- illustrating ways to communicate

- demonstrating identity

NB The more you talk about an idea, the stronger the neural connections in the brain become. Talking about, or imagining, something can be just as powerful for the brain as doing it.

vii) social organ  - fairness/empathy

Human beings are social animals, ie brain likes being with other brains.

Don't underestimate the importance of quality and quantity of social connections, interactions, etc. It forms the basis of both sympathy and empathy.

Social connection is a basic need like food, shelter and water.

While you thrive on quality and quantity of social connections, loneliness generates a threat response. Generally,  people perform better (including creativity) in a non-threatening environment.

A far greater positive response (neuro-chemical) is activated when giving rather than receiving.

Fairness is regarded as a primary need, ie it is a key driver of behaviour. A sense of fairness, or unfairness, creates a strong reward or threat response.

viii) unlimited plasticity and connectivity

As the brain has very plastic, neural connections, new behaviours can be learnt and entrenched behaviours modified at any age, ie you can 'teach an old dog new tricks'.

ix) insights (for more details, see elsewhere in this Knowledge Base)

xi) memories (for more details, see elsewhere in this Knowledge Base)

xii) self-organising, ie prefers patterns (for more details, see elsewhere in this Knowledge Base)