How Do Stories
Change Your Brain?
Storytelling is an essential part of being human. Stories stimulate the brain and change the way we act in our lives.
The stories motivate you to work with others, make you more empathic, compassionate, and generous, and positively influence your social behavior.
Stories shape
your brains, activate the auditory cortex in your brain and ignite the left
temporal cortex, the region that is receptive to language.
At the
chemical level, when you hear stories, your brain secretes oxytocin, the
bonding hormone that makes you really care about the people involved.
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| How Storytelling Affects the Brain? |
Why Are Stories Important to Humans?
Storytelling is one of the
most powerful means that you must have to influence, teach, and inspire.
Storytelling serves as a
way to teach what society values and to deliver a specific message during spiritual
and ceremonial functions.
Through stories, you can
share passions, joys, sadness, fears and hardships, and can find common ground
with other people so that you can connect and communicate with them.
Why Do We Love Stories?
Whether we like to read a
story - or hear it ... or watch stories - we love stories. Stories and novels
are not a luxury, accessories, or a way to pass the time ... they are simply
part of our brain activity and its requirements ... And if we really want to
pass on any value, any message, any principle ... then that cannot be better
than what happens with "stories".
Effective stories make it
easier for your brains to store data for later retrieval and heighten your
ability to memorize experiences and thus help improve information processing.
The stories make you feel
emotions. Emotions are a signal to the brain that everything we experience is
important.
The direct impact of the
stories is evident and can be easily noticed in any lecture. When there is a
personal story involved, the interaction and activity by the audience is much
greater than when the conversation is devoid of the story.
Stories make the
information unforgettable and allow us to share information in a way that
creates an emotional connection.
Biological studies offer an astonishing explanation: When we hear a story, we
imagine what is happening, we feel the feeling of the hero, we imitate it to
some degree ... and all this activates multiple and different regions in the
brain, and it secretes nerve impulses different from those that are produced in
the case of normal speech devoid of the story.
This brain activity when
hearing or reading stories explains why the details of the story are much more
stuck in our minds than when hearing a normal conversation, no matter how
clever, scientific and logical it is.
Some researchers indicate
that a telling/hearing story was an important tool in the survival of humanity
at the beginning of its history and that this was no less important than some
important human organs.
How? They point out that
stories were the only way to pass community laws, customs and traditions within
the first primitive societies, and they were the only way to warn of potential
dangers that the "recipient" had not yet faced, but the story would
make him understand them, anticipate their danger and take precautions from them...
Likewise, the nature of
these societies necessitated the existence of values of cooperation and
altruism between members of the tribe or village, and these values were passed
on through stories.
The person who sacrifices
for the sake of others is glorified and bestowed upon him certain qualities,
which makes others want to follow his example.
In one important study
that attempted to verify this information, two primitive societies were studied
in the Philippines, where the population still lives a primitive lifestyle.
In the first society,
there were more "storytellers" and they were viewed with great
respect, and in the second society the number of storytellers was less and the
perception of them was less.
80% of the stories
circulated were concerned with values (right and wrong, and the attitude
towards them) and not as one might expect it to be against the dangers of
nature.
The other important thing:
the standard of cooperation and generosity for the first society was higher
than for the second society. This strengthens the idea that stories contributed
to the survival of mankind by transmitting certain values that encourage people
to perform certain behaviors that contribute to survival.
Any other human society in
that period, was not armed with stories, was exposed to destruction and
extinction much more than societies that blamed their members for certain
values through stories ... In other words, simplified: Those who do not
tell or hear stories ... become extinct ... As for those who do, they have
survived.
And all modern humans are
descendants of the second type. In other words, from the other: our brains
are hardwired to interact with stories. This is part of our human nature.
Why Do Stories Matter for
Children's Learning?
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| Storytelling is very important for children's mental growth |
Researchers have found
that stories have a strong influence on children's understanding of cultural
and gender roles.
The role of stories is not
limited to developing literacy in children; stories convey values, attitudes,
beliefs, and social norms that in turn shape children's perceptions of reality.
Stories help improve your
child's brain, ability to focus, concentration, and memory, develop listening
and communication skills, create a sense of wonder, bring experiences alive,
and help sequence events.
Reading stories to
pre-school children strengthens their ability to understand the feelings and
thoughts of others, or what has been termed "theory of mind".
Researchers have also
found a similar effect when children watched movies in particular, but not
television in general.
It is believed that the
reason for this is that children often watch television alone, but when they go
to the cinema they are in the company of parents, which creates an opportunity
for dialogue between them and their parents regarding the interactions they are
watching.
Keith Oatley, a professor of cognitive
psychology at the University of Toronto, Canada, says that literature is a
useful simulation, because discussing the social world in an effective way is
extremely difficult, and it requires an extremely large number of causes and
consequences to be taken into account. Just as the computer simulations we use
help us deal with complex problems such as flying or forecasting the weather, so
dramas, novels and stories help us understand the complexities of social life.
These results confirm that many people feel that
reading a novel has taught them something or enlightened their minds.
And don't be surprised too much if you find your
brain comparing people you have met in flesh and blood novels you have read
with others you meet here or there, it seems that the brain takes both very
seriously.
Reading rich literature has evolved us as human beings, and this is what neuroscience proves today.
Conclusion
⇒Stories are
a part of everyday life and help you communicate and connect with others.
⇒Storytelling
helps you understand the world and communicate your values and beliefs.
⇒Storytelling
creates a participatory and immersive experience that allows you to enjoy
hearing language in a dynamic, stylistic, and sometimes entertaining way.
⇒Storytelling
affects the brain in some strange and wonderful ways. The stories activate the
auditory cortex in your brain and ignite the left temporal cortex, the area
that receives language.
⇒The stories
have a powerful influence on children's understanding of cultural and gender
roles. They help improve children's brain, ability to focus, and memory and
develop empathy and cultivate imaginative and divergent thinking.