Changing Beliefs
Stories have the power to persuade. Let's look at advertisements, which sometimes follow a story-like narrative structure. Researchers Quesenberry and Coolsen (2014) asked the public to rate 108 Superbowl commercials from the 2010 and 2011 Superbowls. They then coded the commercials to designate if they followed a dramatic structure or not. I think you already guessed that overall, commercials that were stories were favored over those that were not.
Advertisers want to persuade you. Stories help them to achieve this.
And what is more powerful than changing someone's mind?
How about letting someone believe the conclusion you want them to come to is their own?
Stories allow us to communicate and give advice indirectly. They allow the listener to come to their own conclusions- conclusions that the storyteller has the power to guide them to. We can sell our ideas through stories. They also tap into emotions, which even for the most logical person, play a big part in our decision-making.
You can read about how gratitude is important as a motivator at work. But numbers and statistics won't have the same impact as a story about the impact of gratitude, such as the story below.
For more information on this idea of stories for persuasion and real-life examples of how stories can change behavior, see the Harvard Business Review's article, "How to Tell a Great Story."
Changing Behaviors
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In 1975, a movie changed the way an entire generation viewed swimming in the ocean. Do you ever think about sharks when you are swimming in the ocean? I do. Most people do. Yet in 2018 there was only one fatal shark attack in the United States (University of Florida, 2019). In contrast, about 40,000 died in car crashes (National Safety Council, 2019). Would so many people be scared of swimming in the ocean without the legendary Jaws series? Probably not.
Dr. Joanne Cantor of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has studied fear reactions from media. She asked students to write about media-produced fright reaction. Movies like Poltergeist and Jaws were at the top of the list for what created a fright reaction. Fiction. Stories that are not very believable.
Jaws was #1 for kids who saw it before age 13. Remember, she was looking at the impact of more than just movies; she was looking at mass media in general. But for 91% of her subjects, fictional sources were the source of their most terrifying memories. Stories have power. They stick with us. They can change our behavior.
Sources:
Cantor, J. (2004). "I'll never have a clown in my house"--why movie horror lives on. Poetics Today, 25(2), 283-304.
Quesenberry, K. A., & Coolsen, M. K. (2014). WHAT MAKES A SUPER BOWL AD SUPER? FIVE-ACT DRAMATIC FORM AFFECTS CONSUMER SUPER BOWL ADVERTISING RATINGS. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 22(4), 437-454. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.msu.edu.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/docview/1566309050?accountid=12598
