Unraveling the power of stories with Nick Mason | Turtl

Unravel the power of stories and why it is the one science every brand should study with Turtl's Chief Storytelling Officer Nick Mason.

<center> Unraveling the power of stories with Nick Mason

<center>Why it’s the one science every brand should study <br> <br>

PROLOGUE: Stories that changed my life

I went to talk, but I ended up listening.

The Medical Sciences Division at the University of Oxford is huge. And it looks even bigger when you’re a young developer, arriving on the first day of a two-year mission to convince its many, many departments they need a knowledge-sharing platform.

I was in my mid 20s. And stories were about to change my life.

In theory, I had a 45-minute slot with some of the leading minds in experimental psychology and clinical neuroscience to win them over to my cause. I soon discovered the reality was a little different. More often than not, they would show up very late, quite apologetic, and immediately begin telling me about their research.

I could see our allocated time slipping away on their office clocks, but I couldn’t help but let them talk. They were about their life’s work. They were telling me stories of new studies that illuminated the winding histories of the human mind, and explained the way we absorb and process information.

They were telling me stories of new studies which illuminated the winding histories of the human mind and explained the way we absorb and process information.

Nick Mason, CEO and Chief Storyteller for Turtl

All those stories, and the discussions they sparked, led me to a question which fascinated me. It’s one I’ve been striving to answer ever since: “What if brands learned from the science and applied the principles of psychology to the content they create across the business?”

But perhaps it wasn’t just the subject matter that reeled me in and prevented me from interrupting my interviewees. Other trailblazing academics have shown that when someone tells us a story, we’re hardwired to go on that journey with them. As we travel through their words, our brains change, our behaviors change, and sometimes our world changes too.

So come with me, and together we'll discover:

🧠 How our brains respond to stories

📚 Why we’re all born storytellers

🗺 What stories shape (and reshape) our world

📊 When to use storytelling in your business

⭐️ Where this quest has led us at Turtl

We live in a storm of stories.

Jonathan Gottschall, literary scholar and author of The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human

CHAPTER ONE: How our brains respond to stories

Once upon a time ... well, over a decade ago ... researchers at Princeton University wired a native English speaker and a native Russian speaker to their machines and said “Tell us a story.”

They recorded both the stories, plus what happened in each storyteller's brains - they looked at their neural activity.

A little later, the researchers wired more English speakers up to their machines, played them both story recordings, and watched the neural activity tell a story of its own, of connection through communication.

What those researchers found helped launch countless TED Talks, blog posts, and LinkedIn articles on storytelling’s phenomenal power.

When we are told a story in a language we understand, as opposed to in a way we cannot comprehend, our neural activity starts to mirror - and in some cases, even anticipate - the neural activity of the storyteller. Through this process of “neural coupling,” we almost live the story as they do. The more perfect the neural coupling, the more successfully the story’s information has been communicated.

Stories affect our chemistry

Listening to a story releases chemicals in our brains. Cortisol and dopamine can grab and focus our attention. Endorphins can make us more relaxed. Perhaps the most magical is oxytocin.

Oxytocin is strongly linked with empathy in social interactions. Neuroeconomist Paul Zak explains, “Oxytocin is produced when we are trusted or shown a kindness, and it motivates cooperation with others.”

It’s also been identified as the neurochemical responsible for “narrative transportation” - the moment when we begin to emotionally resonate with a story’s characters, when our attention has been captured and our brains intuit their emotions so we feel them too.

Ever felt elated yet exhausted at the end of an action movie? That’s because oxytocin has swept you into the running shoes of a triumphant underdog. If Roger Ebert's famous claim is true, this is in no small part because stories are a machine for generating oxytocin.

The movies are like a machine that generates empathy.

Roger Ebert, American film historian, writer, and critic

Stories affect our actions

Research shows a link between being told a character-driven story and increased oxytocin synthesis. These increases in oxytocin affect our behavior, even after a story ends.

When Zak’s team told test subjects the story of a terminally ill child and asked them to donate to a charity, subjects with higher levels of oxytocin gave more generously. Similarly, when two test audiences were dosed with artificial oxytocin or a placebo and shown public safety ads, the group riding an empathy high reported being more likely to follow the safety advice.

Basically, when you tell your audience a story - especially a personal, emotionally compelling one - their neural activity begins to mirror yours. You alter the chemical balances in their brain, and they become more receptive to your message.

Yet still, we see many brands in 2022 continue to neglect centering storytelling at the heart of their internal communications and external materials.

Storytelling studies show us

A single storytelling session with hospitalized children can increase oxytocin and reduce pain levels
When a tragic situation is presented as a story, the audience produces more oxytocin, making them give more generously
Increase someone’s oxytocin levels while showing them a public safety ad and they’re more likely to say they will follow its advice

Stories affect our relationships

Neuroscience illuminates the way stories affect us as we listen to them. But we have to turn to anthropology and history to understand how stories affect our lives and communities on a much grander scale.

Since the earliest days of oral storytelling, stories have helped to define, develop and preserve human life. A clear example is the Indigenous Australian ‘Dreamtime’ story of Tiddalik the Frog.

In the version told by the Gunnai Kurnai people of Gippsland, Tiddalik is a greedy frog who drinks all the water in the billabongs, rivers, and sea. Rather than punishing or outcasting the frog, all the local animals team up to make Tiddalik laugh, sending the water rushing back to where it belongs and helping the frog return to normal.

By telling and retelling Tiddalik’s story across the land for tens of thousands of years, communities to this day won't soon forget the preciousness of natural resources, the dangers of selfishness, and the power of working together towards a common goal.

"Homo sapiens are a storytelling animal that think in stories rather than in numbers or graphs, and believe that the universe itself works like a story, replete with heroes and villains, conflicts and resolutions, climaxes and happy endings."

- Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

CHAPTER TWO: Why we’re all born storytellers

As we’ve seen, the stories we tell shape recipients in very real, measurable ways, but in telling stories, we also shape ourselves.

Undoubtedly, my introduction to the world of psychology research was a pivotal moment in my professional career - one that set me on a new path and led to me founding my own company. As such, it’s an event I’ve revisited and related countless times.

There were other things happening in my life the day I arrived at Oxford. Things that seemed just as, if not more, important at the time. Any history of my lived experience would have to include it all.

But my life isn’t a comprehensive catalog when I am talking to others or reflecting to myself - It’s a story.

Narrative psychology 101

Story is what brain does.

Will Storr, The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better"

Narrative psychologists argue that the stories we tell about our lives are a form of identity. The events we choose to include, and the events we choose to edit out, simultaneously reflect and shape who we are.

As The Atlantic’s Julie Beck writes in her introduction to the field, “A life story doesn’t just say what happened, it says why it was important, what it means for who the person is, for who they’ll become, and for what happens next.”

For business leaders, all this begs the question: Does your brand have a story that fully reflects its brand “identity”? And how might you change that story to shape your organization’s future?

A language we all know

From childhood, we learn to interpret stories, whether they are visual or vocal.

As explored in the previous chapter, narratives we hear throughout life shape everything about us from our actions to our relationships. But stories can also safely expose us to creative ideas, new environments, and extraordinary situations.

In 2019, the BBC reported that children who have fiction read to them regularly exhibited more empathy than others, and could comprehend that someone might have different thoughts and feelings to us, which is essential for understanding and predicting other people’s behavior.

Growing and motivating through stories

Stories (especially those in which we’re the hero) can be a powerful form of self-persuasion and brand incentive in business, plus a push towards personal growth.

One study asked psychotherapy outpatients to tell stories about themselves, analyzed the nature of the stories, and tracked their sense of well-being.

The patients who told more coherent stories and made themselves the central actor in them showed the greatest improvements. Perhaps even more interestingly, a related longitudinal study found that people began to feel better after they began telling stories in which they took greater control of their recoveries.

This study, published in the 2010s, echoes the thinking behind narrative therapy, a practice pioneered in the 1970s and ‘80s by social workers in Australia and New Zealand. Narrative therapists seek to actively unearth and unpack the narratives governing their patients’ lives, to then help patients “re-author” more positive stories in their place.

CHAPTER THREE: What stories shape (and reshape) our world

Teaching and learning through story

How do you explain right and wrong to a four-year-old child? The other day, I found myself telling my son “You shouldn’t bully people. And you shouldn’t be afraid of bullies.” He stared at me blankly from the passenger seat.

Before bed, I read him a modern version of the old Norwegian folk tale, Three Billy Goats Gruff. I saw him feel the fear of the little goat, simply trying to cross a bridge, only to be threatened by the troll that lives beneath it. A few pages later, I saw him feel pity for that same troll when the little goat’s big brother kicked it down to a watery grave.

My son hadn’t yet fully understood the concept of bullying. But he could understand everything he needed to through the power of a narrative.

From billy goats to Babylonian kings

Humans have used stories to shape societies for millennia.

One of the earliest extant legal texts is the Code of Hammurabi. Inscribed on a basalt slab, it sets out 282 rules in an ‘if this, then this’ format. For example, “If a man accuses another man of murder, but cannot prove it, the accuser shall be put to death.”

In the text’s prologue, the Babylonian King Hammurabi claims to have received these rules from Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice. But logic tells us such laws are a codification of many lived experiences over time.

The ancient Babylonians figured out the rules and punishments that worked best, and formed them into a series of tiny narratives - single chains of cause and effect - to allow them to be transmitted to the society as a whole, told through the mouthpiece of Shamash.

A tool for social change

Today, storytelling is proving a vital technique for those working to change damaging systems, heal communities, or build toward other social goods.

Most prominently seen in films, creatives express suffering, explore trauma, and encourage critical reflection for audiences. Recently the release of Candyman (2021), the spiritual successor to Candyman (1990), highlighted the evolution of filmmakers over time in exposing racism and its effect on the black diaspora.

This tool has also seen families and social workers in the UK swap stories, realize they have shared goals, and co-create a new service. At its most ambitious, storytelling unites people to author a new manifestation myth for humanity.

Most organizations’ goals aren’t so grand. But the fact is, whether you want to convince a customer to buy a product, motivate your employees, or change the culture of your brand - you should be studying and applying storytelling too.

Story has many different qualities that make it useful for changing systems. It enables the possible to feel probable in ways our rational minds cannot comprehend.

Ella Saltmarshe, Using Story to Change Systems, Stanford Social Innovation Review 2018

Stories are the original scientific method

Historical stories of the past can teach people lessons, but there is a deeper value for storytelling to human development.

Australian researchers found that verbal and painted stories from Indigenous communities were able to faithfully record and track changes in sea levels between 18,000 and 7000 years ago. Where modern humans might assume only scientists could reliably note these events since they happen very slowly and would not have been noticeable in an individual’s lifetime, 300 generations of Indigenous communities faithfully documented their environment.

Intergenerational stories don't just pass orally or physically, they can be genetic. In 2015 scientists confirmed that children of Holocaust survivors held their ancestors' trauma responses despite not experiencing the event. In fact, subsequent generations don't necessarily need to be told or see the traumatic story in order to be affected by it. This is the theory of epigenetic inheritance and scientists still cannot explain how human DNA stores this.

From learning what could and couldn't be eaten, to how to best raise a child, humans have always known that all answers can be discovered through stories.

CHAPTER FOUR: When to use storytelling in your business

Use storytelling to engage

“If you ask a group of nine-year-old children about gravity, one or two will perk up,” says author and journalist, Lucy Hawking. But tell them if they were on Mars they could jump 2.5x higher, and then ask them to imagine playing football on Mars—and it’s a very different… well, story.

The principle holds true for 20-year old students, or 40-year old CIOs, or whoever else you want your content to engage; to create more engaging content, tell stories.

Crucially, tell stories that:
- Take place in a world your audience understands
- Revolve around your audience’s interests
- Allow your audience (not science or your branding) to be the central character

Learning which stems from a well-told story is remembered more accurately, for far longer, than learning derived from facts or figures.

Vanessa Boris, What Makes Storytelling So Effective For Learning?

Use storytelling to persuade

In chapter one, we saw how profoundly listening to a good story can affect our brain chemistry and our subsequent behavior. You’ve a huge opportunity to put this knowledge to work in the content you create, and help your audience to receive and act on your messages.

You don’t have to read Joseph Campbell from cover to cover, you should familiarize yourself with basics of “the hero’s journey”, and understand three- and five- act structures.

These common narrative models can play a powerful role in everything from your video content to your case studies, and you might be surprised by just how much more persuasive they make your messages.

Take the story of a man and his wife, trying to buy their first home. Outbid by the competition, the man wrote the owners a letter using the skills he’d learnt at a workshop with story practitioner, Cate Friesen. He explained what the house would mean to him and his wife—and the owners rejected the higher bid, and offered them their new home.

Use storytelling to build a brand

We all understand that a strong “brand narrative” can help us to define our organization’s purpose and values, and communicate these to our employees and customers. But did you know that simply telling stories could positively affect people’s perceptions of your organization?

Researchers studying the Agta community in The Philippines have found that good storytellers were more likely to be chosen as social partners and to receive support from the community when they needed it.

The same study found that villages with a higher number of good storytellers tended to be more generous. So, if you’re looking to drive greater team cooperation and cohesion, you might also consider embedding storytelling skills across your organization.

Use storytelling to make your data meaningful

Culture transformation expert Karen Eber tells the story of a college advisor trying to convince a university that it’s failing students with autism.

Rather than simply present the data - which the institution’s leaders already had - she related the struggles of a single student, Michelle, as she attempted to navigate the university’s processes.

When she eventually presented the figures that only 20% of students with autism were graduating, her audience could understand what it actually meant, and why they needed to take corrective action.

Data is an increasingly plentiful, valuable resource for modern organizations. But whether you’re looking to motivate teams or convince customers, it should always be translated into a story.

Use storytelling to create value

Could telling better stories about your products and services actually increase their market value? It’s a bold idea, but there’s reason to think it might.

The organizers of the Significant Objects Project bought objects from thrift stores and garage sales, then asked writers to create new narratives around them. The items were sold on eBay with the stories in the place of the factual description. Whether elevated by the power of their story, or by their new status as muse for a recognized author, the tchotchkes which had cost a total of $128.74 to buy, sold for a total of $3,612.51.

Have you used these tactics?

Storytelling to engage
Storytelling to persuade
Storytelling to build a brand
Storytelling to enhance data
Storytelling to create value

EPILOGUE: Where our quest for marketing’s most valuable answers has led us

The answers that marketers really need

Whether a business wants to see improvements in conversion or engagement, a story needs to be at the heart of the message.

The latest research on content aligns with the patterns we've seen in Turtl; consumers see greater value in webinars, podcasts, case studies, and e-Books that tell a strong story in a human format.

Just look at 21st-century marketing trends or human history from thousands of years ago. The conclusion never changes. People like stories, and stories incite change.

Throughout my time in Oxford, my mind kept returning to the one question that wouldn't let me rest.

“What if brands learned from the science, and applied the principles of psychology to the content they create?”

I knew I couldn’t answer it on my own, so I co-founded a business.

After many iterations and much testing, we were able to develop a content format with a huge amount of best-practice psychology baked in. This format. The Turtl.

Recently, and even more satisfyingly, we were able to show the dramatic positive impact on reader engagement and perceptions.

This exciting adventure is just beginning …

Want to start a conversation?

Over the last few years, organizations in every major industry have created a huge amount of Turtl content. Their prospects, customers, and employees have created a huge amount of data simply by interacting with it.

We’re now starting to ask questions about this data and get the insights that digital marketers have sought for decades.

So if we meet in the coming months and I launch into the story of our latest research project - I hope you’ll forgive me. I am clearly passionate about research and science and how that all fits into stories. Who knows, maybe my data story will change your life ...