A good story can make us laugh or cry, our bodies can tense with a dramatic horror movie, or we are flooded with relief when the hero comes to the rescue. This experience is called transportation.
Transportation allows us to experience a story's movement through its characters. The characters' struggles and their rewards become our own.

A good story moves us

The same parts of our brain we use to smell or to wave also help us understand the words we use to describe those experiences.
These neurological insights bring much-needed substance to the storytelling conversation.

Stories make ideas real

Good stories catch your attention, connects you by drawing you in and move you to action. Stories that don't capture your attention will fail to deliver their message.
When participants remain engaged with a story and see characters overcome conflicts, they will empathize with the characters and be more willing to act on these feelings.

Our relationship with stories

Stories are like instruction manuals that explain how we move from one state of being to another.Stories help us imagine how we can improve our own lives or avoid unpleasant consequences. Because we can imagine living out the consequences of certain choices, we are often inspired to change our behavior and act in a certain way.

Why storytelling works

"Metaphor" means "to transfer." Like stories, metaphors subconsciously encode complex ideas.
We find metaphors so gripping because we process them with sense or motor imagery in terms of those physical experiences. For instance, "I saw the light" or "I ran out of time."

Metaphors are the most basic stories

How to use stories to differentiate, connect, and influence

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The Power of Storytelling

The importance of storytelling has become universally accepted in today's marketing world, but why does it work so well? Contributor Peter Minnium delves into the biological underpinnings of how stories affect us.

Our relationship with stories

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