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Storytelling & Neuroscience #PCTO15

Storytelling & Neuroscience

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Storytelling & Neuroscience

#PCTO15

Rob ClarkStoryteller & Problem [email protected]/in/theelusivefish

CAVEAT:IANANi am not a neurologist

Once upon a time…

Once upon a time…

Why did we evolve as story telling creatures?

The brain is always converting raw data into meaningful patterns.

Safe or not safe?

Fgrav = 0.2 * 9.8 m/s2

Experiences translate into an understanding of the world

Memories expand our available data from which we model the world

See Saw Experiment

See Saw Experiment

See Saw Experiment

See Saw Experiment

Stories let us codify our collective past, in order to better understand the now.

Ouch…

Frank and Joe looked in horror at the oncoming car. It was careening from side to side on the narrow road.

“He’ll hit us! We’d better climb this hillside, and fast!” Frank exclaimed, as the boys brought their bikes to a screeching halt and leaped off.

“On the double!” Joe cried out as they started up the steep embankment.

Stories can act as a simulation for the mind

Stories allow us to have experiences without facing the physical risk

Cause & Effect

Stories allow us to envision the future

Not sure if actually

experiencing the future…

Or just

hearing a

really good

story.

We fear and resist change

But we are risk takers

Stories allow us to accept change by experiencing it in a safe setting and fully examine the rewards of taking risk.

Evolutionary advantage to the storytellers:• Learn and understand without

the need for first hand experience

• Predict the outcomes of actions

• Risk/reward analysis

The hardwiring and working of our brains make some stories more acceptable to us than others.

Freytag’s Pyramid

Inciting incident

Rising action

Falling action

Denouement

Climax

Resolution

Exposition

Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth

Call to adventure

Reward

KNOWN

UNKNOWN

Meeting Mentor

Crossing the Threshold

Tests

Helpers

Climax / Ordeal

Refusal of the call

Enemies

Return with Treasure

The Road Back

The stories we’re most likely to latch on to are structured around change which comes through conflict

Chekhov’s gun

Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first act that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third act it absolutely must go off.

If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.

PAYOFFSETUP

Our brains are seeking to put meaning to patterns: if this, then that.

And then what?To hook your audience, you need to establish quickly that there is a puzzle or an emergent pattern.

My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen years old when I was murdered on December 6th

1973.

And then what?

Is everything in place?

You aren’t supposed to relieve me.

I know but I felt like taking a shift.

You like him, don’t you. You like watching him. We’re going to kill him, you

understand that?Morpheus believes he’s the one.

Do you?

And then what?

WTF?!? And then what?

Remember the see saw experiment

The brain wants reality to fit the model it has built for itself.

The brain doesn`t like randomness or abstraction and will seek to impose order or establish a pattern.

Metaphors be with you

• Hold your tongue• I beg to differ• Let the cat out of the bag• Spring to life• Barking up the wrong tree

• “Their eyes meet and her heart starts flopping around weakly, like a bunny in a Ziploc bag.”

There is a payoff when we connect the dots and give meaning to a pattern.

Likewise our brains do not like random occurrences or puzzle pieces that do not fit

Once more, with feeling

• Empathic response• Release of cortisol

and oxytocin

Highest level goals are set by emotion

The Elusive Fish

Emotion gives weight to events. Creating an empathic response captures the attention and ensures greater connection to the story.

!!!

Grab and hold your audience:• Cue a puzzle for solving• Feels > Plot• If this, then that. • Set it up and then pay it off.

Image CreditsBrain• Allan Ajilfo https://flic.kr/p/of4Z3W

Hans Christian Anderson• Granger

Tiger in the Grass• National Geographic

Thinking• Freddie Alequin https://flic.kr/p/dS7kwj

Baby with Fork• Bridget Coila https://flic.kr/p/9ho963

First Day of School• Michael Newton https://flic.kr/p/51N4Xt

Empathy• Rosenfeld Media https://flic.kr/p/7qnHDb

Cyclist on Hill• Jeremy Brooks https://flic.kr/p/7qnHDb

Chicken• Marji Beach https://flic.kr/p/ag4XcH

Eggs• Moyan Brenn https://flic.kr/p/8YS4gk

Fried Eggs• Irish Jaunt https://flic.kr/p/b4KSCc

Kite• Don DeBold https://flic.kr/p/dL2ePB

Remembering• James Lee https://flic.kr/p/7qnHDb