We know that storytelling creates a strong connection between teller and listener. Now new research suggests that the effects of storytelling may even go beyond that
It’s long been known that telling stories can create empathy and connection between storyteller and listener. In a series of experiments researchers at Drexel University, Philadelphia, found that the speaker’s and the listener’s brains during storytelling “exhibited joint, temporally coupled, response patterns.” To put it simply, “The listener’s brain responses mirrored the speaker’s brain responses.”
Stories with an element of emotion are even more impactful and memorable because of what is known as the Emotions as Social Information Model (EASI). Whenever we work with senior executives and their teams in storytelling workshops, we see this happen in practice as people develop closer bonds and develop better mutual understanding.
But now new research has added an interesting nuance to this idea. Researchers from East China Normal University have discovered that it’s the sharing of happy, positive stories that really increases feelings of closeness and synchrony between speaker and listener. This is more the case than it is with sad stories.
Happy, sad and neural videos
In the study, the storyteller watched a number of happy, sad, and neutral videos and then recorded themselves explaining the contents of the videos. These videos were then shown to another group of participants – the listeners. Each group heard about a happy, neutral or sad video. They then rated their feelings of closeness to the speaker. Both speaker and listener were using EEG monitoring equipment to measure brain activity.
The researchers discovered that when happy stories were shared the listeners remembered them better – and they also felt closer to the speaker. There was greater Interpersonal Brain Synchronisation (IBS) between speaker and audience as indicated by EEG monitoring of the prefrontal region of their brains. “These findings improve our understanding of emotional communication among individuals that guides behaviours during interpersonal interactions,” note the researchers.
With so many of us having worked remotely over the last couple of years – and continuing to do so in many cases – empathy and connection within organisations has never been so important. Virtual meetings technology such as Zoom and Teams work well to enable groups to share information or deliver presentations. But, as we all know, when it comes to that peripheral, informal conversation that is so typical of office life – and we would argue, such a vital part of it – they usually fall down.
We’re not suggesting that business leaders and teams need to share only positive or happy stories as if they were in some kind of corporate Pollyanna-style fantasy world. Telling stories and making them honest, authentic and human is the best way to communicate, as thousands of years of history as well as modern neuroscience tell us. After all, mistakes, sadness, and fear all add to a good story as we all know from our own experience of watching movies and reading books.
However, this new research suggests that picking out positive aspects and messages in a narrative such as learning a lesson or growing through resilience and developing grit can help to create a closer bond and a better sense of connection and empathy between speaker and listener.
