How To Tell Stories That People Love - Will Storr
Here are the top 10 key takeaways from Will Storr's fascinating deep-dive into the psychology of storytelling and why narratives shape human behavior more powerfully than facts ever could.
1. Stories are the brain's native language
The human brain hasn't evolved to process data, algorithms, or statistics as its primary mode of understanding reality. Instead, our brains naturally remix reality into narratives with ourselves at the center. This is why storytelling functions as sensemaking for the human brain, making stories inherently more persuasive than raw facts or logical arguments.
Even highly educated people, including scientists and academics, start with a story and then find data to support their narrative. This happens because our brains are fundamentally wired to understand the world through storytelling rather than pure rational analysis. The implications are profound: even when we believe we're being rational and data-driven, we're often being guided by underlying narratives that shape how we interpret information.
2. Knowingness is more dangerous than misinformation
Beyond the problem of misinformation lies a more insidious issue called "knowingness" - the belief that you already have the answer before the question is posed. This creates a Faraday cage effect where people become impervious to new information regardless of its quality or accuracy. Unlike misinformation, which can theoretically be countered with better information, knowingness represents a complete closure to learning.
This phenomenon explains why providing more facts rarely changes people's minds on contentious issues. When someone exhibits knowingness, they've essentially decided the science is settled on their position. No amount of evidence will penetrate this mental barrier because they're not genuinely open to having their views challenged or modified.
3. Stories function as brain-fusing technology
Stories serve as a device for connecting individual human brains into collective super-organisms. This is how humans overcame the fundamental challenge of being individualistic apes who needed to cooperate like ants to survive and thrive. Under the influence of story, groups of people align their thinking, face the same direction, and pursue shared goals while overcoming common obstacles.
You can observe this effect in movie theaters where individuals enter as separate entities but become temporarily fused into a collective consciousness. Everyone experiences the same reality for 90 minutes, often leaving with a shared sense of connection. This same mechanism operates in political movements, religious groups, and cultural tribes where shared narratives bind people together into coordinated action.
4. Identity matters more than survival
In the human story world, identity often trumps physical survival. People throughout history have chosen death over identity failure, whether in warfare, suicide, or acts of martyrdom. This happens because humans exist simultaneously in two worlds: the physical world where we share concerns about food and shelter with other animals, and the story world where we are collections of ideas rather than flesh and blood.
Most suicide cases represent identity failure rather than physical inability to continue living. The pain of a collapsed identity - feeling unloved, useless, or trapped without hope of rescue - can become so acute that death seems preferable. This explains why attacks on someone's core identity feel so threatening and why people respond with such intensity when their fundamental beliefs or self-concept are challenged.
5. Stories appeal to identity, not product features
The most persuasive advertising and communication focuses on identity rather than product specifications. Apple's "1984" ad contained no technical details, pricing, or even images of their computer, yet it became one of the most successful campaigns in history. The ad worked by offering customers a high-status identity as creative rebels fighting against conformity.
This principle extends beyond advertising to all forms of persuasion. When the same company tried to repeat their success with the "Lemmings" ad the following year, it failed catastrophically because it removed status by calling business users brain-dead followers. The key insight is that people don't just buy products - they buy identities, and the most effective stories help people see themselves as the type of person who would use that product or believe that message.
6. Heroes must be relatable, not necessarily likeable
Successful storytelling depends on identification rather than likability. Audiences need to see themselves in characters, which creates emotional investment in the story. This is why Luke Skywalker begins as "Wormy," an orphan working on a moisture farm - he represents the underdog that many people can identify with before his heroic transformation.
The recent failure of many Hollywood franchises stems from replacing relatable heroes with characters that specific demographics cannot identify with, while simultaneously humiliating the original heroes. When you humiliate Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker, you're not just making characters unlikeable - you're attacking the identity of people who see themselves in those characters. This creates the intense negative reactions we've seen to various franchise reboots.
7. All stories are fundamentally about survival, connection, or status
Every archetypal story addresses one or more of humanity's three core drives: physical survival, social connection, and status within groups. The most enduring and powerful stories like The Godfather, Romeo and Juliet, and Star Wars address all three elements simultaneously. This creates the rich, meaningful experience that makes certain stories timeless while others are quickly forgotten.
Stories function as implicit deals with audiences: "If you behave like this hero, you'll be rewarded with these precious social resources." Heroes always win connection, status, or survival through their actions. This is why audiences subconsciously absorb lessons about how to navigate their own lives through the stories they consume, making the moral and behavioral examples in popular culture particularly influential.
8. Atomic statements pack maximum meaning into minimal space
The most memorable and shareable ideas are "atomic statements" - tiny phrases that explode with meaning when they contact human brains. Examples include "Just do it," "Houston, we have a problem," and "We're gonna need a bigger boat." These phrases succeed because they encapsulate entire stories or worldviews in a few words.
Political messaging demonstrates this power clearly. "Kamala is for they/them, Trump is for you" created a measurable 2.7% shift in the election according to research. The statement worked because it was brief, clear, appealed to identity, and told a story that millions of Americans immediately understood about cultural conflicts and political alignment.
9. High-status people become unconscious models for mimicry
Humans automatically seek out high-status versions of themselves to copy unconsciously. This mimicry includes behavior patterns, speech, dress, and artistic tastes as our brains calculate that becoming more like successful people will increase our own status. This process happens largely outside conscious awareness and drives much of social behavior and cultural trends.
The mechanism explains everything from celebrity endorsements to social media influence. When people identify with someone they perceive as a higher-status version of themselves, they naturally begin adopting that person's characteristics. This is why authentic influence often works better than obvious advertising - people want to emulate those they admire rather than feeling like they're being sold to.
10. Virtue signaling combines status-seeking with rule enforcement
Virtue represents one of three main paths to status (alongside dominance and competence), but it carries a dark side. While virtue can involve genuine moral goodness, it also includes the impulse to enforce group rules and punish those who don't share the same story world. This creates the phenomenon we see in cancel culture and moral panics.
Virtue-based status games reward people for demonstrating moral purity and punishing perceived transgressors. This explains why virtue signaling often escalates into increasingly extreme positions and aggressive enforcement behaviors. The Red Guards during China's Cultural Revolution and modern cancel culture both represent virtue-based status competitions where participants gain standing by identifying and punishing rule-breakers.