{"id":108916,"date":"2023-07-24T13:43:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T17:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=108916"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:25:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:25:19","slug":"why-do-people-like-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-people-like-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do People Like Stories? How Stories Appeal to the Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Why do people like stories? What answer can we find in the reason why storytelling developed in the first place?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stories aren&#8217;t just entertaining; they also satisfy a neurological need that humans evolved over millennia. That&#8217;s the view of Lisa Cron, who argues that our brains evolved to absorb important survival information through stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more to understand why Cron urges writers to write in a way that satisfies our brains&#8217; expectations of a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/hub\/society-culture\/arts\/storytelling-guide\/\">Shortform\u2019s guide to storytelling<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-why-people-like-stories\">Why People Like Stories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Why do people like stories? To answer that question, Cron goes back way in time and takes a neurological perspective. She explains that storytelling was developed to help us remember important information and use that information to make predictions. This allowed us to survive difficult challenges by preparing for them without having to experience the dangerous situations firsthand. For example, an ancient hunter-gatherer who had a close call with a bear might regale their community with that harrowing tale, giving them important survival knowledge, like where they might expect to encounter bears and tips for how to get away unscathed (don\u2019t run from it, and don\u2019t try hiding in a tree either!).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Ancient Storytelling<\/strong><br><br>Some experts argue that the majority of stories that ancient people told while gathered around the fire were not necessarily adventure stories but were instead <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/the-stories-our-lives\/201610\/family-stories-the-birth-humanity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">family stories<\/a> that helped to establish and pass down a familial and cultural identity. They suggest that these stories were particularly impactful for children, noting that children of families that tell more intricate stories <a href=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/familynarrativeslab\/family-narratives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tend to have better self-esteem<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/emotional-health-and-well-being\/\">emotional well-being<\/a> (which also helps prepare us to survive difficult challenges in life).&nbsp;<br><br>Because of the oral nature of early storytelling, it\u2019s not possible to know when fictional storytelling arose, but the earliest <em>known<\/em> fictional story was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.com\/news\/what-is-the-oldest-known-piece-of-literature\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>The Epic of Gilgamesh<\/em><\/a>, believed to be around 4,000 years old\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/human-evolution\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more than 300,000<\/a> years after humans evolved to our current level.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In order for us to pay attention to these stories, <strong>they had to be presented in a way that appealed to how our brains process information<\/strong>. This caused us to develop expectations for what a story should be like, and, if a story doesn\u2019t meet these expectations consistently, we won\u2019t keep listening\u2014or reading. Cron explains that because these expectations are so hardwired, they\u2019re instinctive, and so we\u2019re not able to easily explain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-makes-a-story-good\/\">what makes a good story<\/a>, which is what makes writing one so difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Our expectations of stories are so powerful that storytellers who\u2019ve mastered the art can sometimes use them to manipulate or mislead us. By presenting harmful ideas in a way that taps into our brains\u2019 instinctive expectations, some people can convince us to <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/s\/power-moves\/how-to-avoid-being-manipulated-by-other-peoples-stories-79892bf6f943\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">view certain groups as enemies<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2020\/12\/dont-let-a-good-story-sell-you-on-a-bad-idea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">make poor business decisions<\/a>, among other things. Some experts suggest that <a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2016\/10\/theranos-and-the-dark-side-of-storytelling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this was the case with Theranos<\/a>, a company that promised an unattainable medical technology but used a compelling story to sell investors on the idea and convinced them to invest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/articles\/investing\/020116\/theranos-fallen-unicorn.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hundreds of millions of dollars<\/a> in the company.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do people like stories? What answer can we find in the reason why storytelling developed in the first place? Stories aren&#8217;t just entertaining; they also satisfy a neurological need that humans evolved over millennia. That&#8217;s the view of Lisa Cron, who argues that our brains evolved to absorb important survival information through stories. Read more to understand why Cron urges writers to write in a way that satisfies our brains&#8217; expectations of a story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":84510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,39,160],"tags":[1109],"class_list":["post-108916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-history","category-science","tag-wired-for-story","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Do People Like Stories? How Stories Appeal to the Brain - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why do people like stories? To answer that, writer Lisa Cron goes back way in time and adopts a neurological perspective. Take a look.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-people-like-stories\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Do People Like Stories? How Stories Appeal to the Brain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why do people like stories? To answer that, writer Lisa Cron goes back way in time and adopts a neurological perspective. 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