Storytelling Magic: The Fastest Way to Build Trust Ep. 5

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Your brain isn't just processing a story—it's dancing with it. That's the fascinating revelation at the heart of this mind-bending exploration into why stories stick with us when facts fade away.

Dive into the neuroscience of storytelling as we uncover how narratives activate your entire brain—not just language centers, but sensory regions, motor cortex, and emotional pathways. When someone mentions touching a microphone's foam cover, your sensory cortex lights up. When they describe running from a bear, your motor cortex activates. This full-brain engagement creates memories that last, unlike isolated facts that barely register.

The chemistry gets even more fascinating. Great stories trigger oxytocin release—the trust and bonding hormone—creating genuine connections between storytellers and listeners. This biological response explains why we feel drawn to compelling narrators and remember their messages. From an evolutionary perspective, this makes perfect sense: our ancestors who paid attention to stories about which plants were poisonous or which neighbors were dangerous lived longer and passed on their story-receptive genes.

Most remarkable is the phenomenon of neural coupling—when your brainwaves literally synchronize with the storyteller's. Princeton neuroscientist Uri Hassan documented this brain-to-brain alignment, revealing how narrative creates a shared mental experience that transcends ordinary communication. This explains why magnetic storytellers seem to cast a spell over audiences—they're bringing your neural activity into harmony with theirs.

Want to make your message unforgettable? Wrap it in a story. Science shows it's not just effective—it's how our brains are designed to connect, learn, and remember. Your audience won't just hear your words; they'll experience them at a neurological level that facts alone can never reach.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
How cool would it be if you could control somebody's
brain by doing one simple thing.
We're going to talk about thata little bit later, but first
the theme song Hello and welcometo the Story Lab.

(00:27):
That was weird because itcaught me off guard, except I
was the one pressing all thebuttons, so it shouldn't catch
me off guard.
But welcome to the Story Lab.
Today we are jumping into whystories stick.
Why are stories so important?
What makes them actually stickwith people?
Why do they resonate?
And we're going to go through awhole bunch of reasons.

(00:47):
But also I'm going to talk toyou about a little bit of brain
control at the end of theepisode.
Let's jump right into this,because I love to talk about
this stuff.
It's a little bit nerdy.
I'm just going to give you someinformation.
Bear with me, it's all going tomake sense and it's all why
stories stick.
Bear with me, it's all going tomake sense and it's all why
stories stick.
So let's start with the factthat your brain is wired for

(01:10):
stories.
Your brain loves stories, yourbrain lives for stories, but
your brain is wired for thosestories.
So what happens when you tellyour brain a fact like I'm 24?
Well, well, the languageprocessing area is going to
light up a little bit littleblip.
The comprehension area of yourbrain is going to light up a

(01:31):
little bit little blip, butthat's it.
It's a tiny little flicker ofof uh activity, nothing really
major.
But when you hear a story, ifit's a story where somebody
talks about the texture, the michas this foamy feeling cover on
it.

(01:51):
That's going to have yoursensory cortex light up because
that's touch.
Then, if I say that I wasrunning for my life and I was
barely able to stay ahead of thebear that was chasing me, well,
that motion that lights up yourmotor cortex, that activates it
whenever there's action, andthen I share how I escaped

(02:14):
running that bear, because I'm24 years old.
I escaped running from thatbear and I got to get home to
see my family and I neverthought I would see them again
because I thought I was going tobe eaten by a bear Lights up
your emotional centers.
It lights up those emotionalcenters Anytime there's conflict
or feeling and excitement.
It's going to light up thoseemotional centers.
And that's why I tell you,whenever you're telling a story,

(02:37):
you got to make them feelsomething, because it's that
feeling something that gets thatstory to stick.
So let's talk about oxytocin.
Oxytocin is a hormone, but it'sa hormone that builds trust and
bonding.
So when you hear a narrativethat's about struggle or triumph
or overcoming the odds allthose things your brain is

(02:58):
flooded with oxytocin, whichmeans that the person telling
the story has built trust andyou're bonding with that person.
That's what makes you feelempathy and a connection to the
characters as well as thestoryteller.
So it's no surprise that weremember messages that are
wrapped in a story.
That's why it's so importantfor you to build stories around

(03:20):
what you're trying to do in yourbusiness.
All right, next up, let's talk alittle bit about history.
We've been writing storiessince we were cavemen pictures
on the walls.
They would tell a story, theywould pass on information.
It would let people know how todo something the right way,

(03:44):
things that were passed downfrom your ancestors.
See, stories keep you alive,because long before there was
TikTok, your elders would sharecautionary tales with you, or
they'd tell you about thepoisonous plants you didn't want
to eat, or maybe even, in moremodern times, dangerous
neighbors that you shouldn't benear.

(04:05):
Can't go playing with Timmydown the street, because Timmy's
dad is nothing but trouble.
Timmy's dad will shoot at you.
Don't play with Timmy.
Sorry, timmies, but those areall those stories.
Now, people that listen tothose stories and paid attention
to those stories, well, theystayed alive longer.
They didn't eat the plants thatwere poisonous, they didn't

(04:27):
play with Timmy.
They didn't end up dead becausethey ate the poisonous plants
or Timmy's dad killed them.
They live longer, which meansthat people who listen to
stories passed on their genes.
More people listen to stories,so it kept us alive and,
honestly, the more you keepalive, those genes pass on.
So evolution pretty muchrewarded us for our story

(04:50):
listening brains.
Another thing let's go into alittle bit of psychology.
Humans are patternseekingseeking individuals.
We want to see the pattern.
There has to be a pattern.
So we make sense of the chaosby forming it into a narrative.
We make sense of all thecraziness by telling it in a way
that's digestible.

(05:11):
We assign cause and effect, weassign heroes and villains.
We say this is the beginning,this is the end.
It's creating a narrative andwe have a narrative bias.
Even our own memories arereconstructed into stories,
sometimes not even realistic.

(05:32):
Sometimes it gives us plenty ofcreative license.
We remember a story verydifferently than somebody else
might remember a story, becauseour brain commits our stories to
our memory in a way that makessense to us.
It may not be what reallyhappened.
Crazy, isn't it All right, nowlet's talk about the crazy
sorcery I was talking aboutearlier, and it's called

(05:56):
brainwave synchronicity.
So when someone tells you astory, your brain doesn't just
passively absorb the information, your brainwaves literally
start to sync up with thestoryteller's brainwaves.
This is called neural coupling,and this happens as you listen
to certain um to a story.

(06:17):
Certain parts of your brainstart to fire in patterns that
mirror the speakers.
Your neural activity aligns inrhythm and it's almost like
you're tuning into the sameradio station.
You are hearing the same music.
Your brain is reacting in thesame way as a storyteller.

(06:37):
The more vivid and engaging thestory, the tighter the coupling
.
And this isn't just hearsay.
Researchers who observe this.
With an MRI and EEG scans.
They can see the brain start tolock into the save wavelength.
It's crazy.
So what's the science behind it?
I'm going to have to read someof this.

(06:57):
So a famous study byneuroscience scientist Uri
Hassan at Princeton showed thisin action.
So a speaker told an unscriptedstory while hooked up to a
scanner.
Later, listeners' brain waveswere scanned as they heard the
recording.
The result the brain activitybegan to mirror the storytellers

(07:21):
, even in complex regionsrelated to emotion and meaning.
So it's like a brain-to-brainhandshake.
Stories connect people literally.
So why does it matter?
Because when your brain syncswith somebody else, your
comprehension improves.
You don't just hear the story,you understand and predict
what's coming next.
Your connection with thatperson deepens.

(07:42):
You feel closer to thestoryteller because your brains
are quite literally in sync, andthat means trust increases,
because shared brain activitycreates a rapport and empathy.
So this is also why people whotell stories feel magnetic.
You aren't just captivated bythe words, your brain is
rhythmically dancing along withtheirs.

(08:04):
It is experiencing the samething when you're telling a
story and you're hearing a story.
So I know that was like crazy,right, brain syncing because of
a story.
But it's true.
Let's make it really simple.
When you tell a story, you'renot just transferring
information, you'resynchronizing your brain with

(08:24):
your audiences and creating ashared mental experience, an
experience that you willremember.
That's why stories are sopowerful.
That's why stories with amessage the message is
remembered If you want to tell astory that's compelling, that
gets your audience to understandsomething that connects on a

(08:47):
deep level.
So much so you're actuallysinking your brains.
So much so you're actuallysinking your brains.
Tell a story, share stories,because stories are what gets
remembered, and we want yourstory to be the one they
remember.
So I will see you next time onthe Story Lab, where we sink
brains like magic.
Have a good one, take care.

(09:07):
Outro Music.