By imagining many possible worlds, fiction helps us understand ourselves and others.

Keith Oatley 

How do you influence people to consider a new point of view? It sometimes seems impossible. But we humans think in terms of stories. Thus, creative tales about people (or anthropomorphic animals, plants, and robots)—be they fiction, memoir, essay, poetry, or biography—are often more accessible to the audience than facts and figures, no matter how good the infographics. That accessibility means we, as consumers, are more likely to internalize the information. And maybe the story creator will find they’ve changed in the telling, as well. I’m sure I’m not the only writer unconsciously working through childhood issues by making up stories. 

Researchers in psychology, communications, and marketing can teach us a lot about ways to influence our audience’s minds and possibly change their hearts.

Influence In The Business World

A corporate leader’s success depends on convincing others—employees, other managers, directors, and shareholders—of the wisdom of their recommendations and plans. This task is challenging in an environment where everyone thinks their ideas are the best. Facts, figures, and reports go ignored and unread. But stories about people can break through the walls of inattention and hostility and change minds. As author James Sudakow says, “we are almost hard wired to respond emotionally to a story in a way that makes data, facts, and figures more credible.” 

Stories create ‘sticky’ memories by attaching emotions to things that happen. That means leaders who can create and share good stories have a powerful advantage over others.

Nick Morgan, Power Cues

Influence To Buy

Benyamin Elias writes in a recent blog about a number of persuasive marketing techniques that rely on storytelling. You may notice these methods being used for both good and evil.

Reasoning By Analogy

An analogy explains a complicated idea by connecting it to something the audience already understands. Aesop’s fables are great examples. Climate change is sometimes compared to the story of the frog that hops into a cool pot of water, little knowing it’s been set over a fire. The animal doesn’t notice it’s being boiled alive because the change happens so slowly.

Future Pacing

Future pacing helps audience image their future self and see themselves benefiting from the product. Unfortunately, some people use future pacing to manipulate others through fear. The stories they tell urge the audience to imagine future harm, which creates and reinforces narratives that lead to war and oppression.  In a 2016 speech on immigration published in the New York Times, then-candidate Trump said,

“Watch what’s going to happen, folks. It’s not going to be pretty. This includes her [candidate Hilary Clinton’s] plan to bring in 620,000 new refugees from Syria and that region over a short period of time. And even yesterday [August 31, 2016], when you were watching the news, you saw thousands and thousands of people coming in from Syria. . . .What the hell are we doing?”

Elsewhere in the speech Trump invoked the names of several murder victims and described the details of their deaths at the hands of illegal immigrants. He drew the audience in with stories about people, encouraged them to identity with the victims, then future paced the listeners into seeing themselves or love ones harmed by illegal immigrants.

High-Activation Emotions

In one study described by Elias, material that elicited amusement, awe, surprise, and anger (high-activation emotions) lead to more on-line clicks than material that sparked sadness (low-activation emotion). A storyteller may feel sad about a situation, but if they want to reach an audience with a message of change, can they reframe the story to elicit one of the high-activation emotions? 

A video recorder in every citizen’s hands and the widespread availability of those recordings through social media has spread compelling images of police brutality throughout the world. Many viewers are surprised, awed, and angered by the stories they see. The high-activation emotions help viewers internalize the story. Similarly, early 1970s filmed news reports about the carnage of the Vietnam War is credited with mobilizing US youth to protest and undercutting political support for the war.

Second Person Point Of View

Although it is the least common fiction point of view, “you” is actually quite powerful in connecting to an audience. And marketing research has found that audiences respond strongly to language that mirrors their own.  

Belief Matching

In many communication-driven situations, such as teaching, health care, counseling, or parenting, we know we must meet the other person where they are. But what exactly does that mean? The person striving to share a message can gauge the underlying emotions of the situation and name them. If the language used consists of  the same words the audience has used to describe the situation, the message is more likely to show understanding. The audience will hear the story. 

When public officials counter the phrase “Black Lives Matter” with “(fill-in-the-blank) Lives Matter,” they are doing just the opposite of belief matching. Whatever it is they wish to communicate won’t be heard.

Can Fiction Influence The Reader?

Keith Oakley, Maja Djikic, Sara Zoeterman, Jordan Peterson published a study that asked if reading fiction affects our emotions and personality. *

They randomly assigned 166 people to read either “The Lady with the Little Dog” by Anton Chekhov, a tale of an extramarital love affair, or the same events of the story but written as a courtroom report of divorce proceedings. Before and after the subjects read the text, the researchers measured the readers’ personalities using a standard personality test.

The court report version was the same length and reading difficulty as the fiction, and the readers rated it just as interesting as Chekhov’s story.

The researchers found the fiction readers’ personality traits changed more than those of the courtroom account readers in small, but measurable ways. Interestingly, the personality changes were unique to each fiction reader, mediated by the emotions they felt while reading.

The research team postulates that their fiction-reading subjects empathized and identified with the protagonists. Each in their own way, the readers became a bit more like the fictional characters. They put themselves in the characters’ shoes, either agreeing with the fictional story decisions or thinking they themselves would make a different choice. 

Through stories, selfhood can expand.  All art aspires to help us transcend ourselves.

Keith Oakley

Do Artists Influence Themselves?

Do creative pursuits change the creator? 

It’s an intriguing thought. How many of us employ not just journaling but also storytelling to find the messages we need to send to ourselves? I know I do, and it’s usually unconscious. I don’t think I use my personal issues to create story. But re-reading a few days later—bam, there it is: a face, a voice, or a theme, telling me something important that I need to hear.

What’s your experience with the influence of story on persuasive techniques? I’d love to hear about it.

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* Maja Djikic, Keith Oatley, Sara Zoeterman & Jordan Peterson, J. (2009). On being moved by art: How reading fiction transforms the self. Creativity Research Journal, 21, 24-29.