Why Do Humans Tell Stories?

When I’m coaching public speakers, I often begin by telling them that if they can tell a good story, they can deliver a presentation. Crafting an engaging narrative is one of the most important things we do as speakers. But why? Why are stories so important to humans? Why do we tell them?

Let’s take a look at 3 reasons stories are so intertwined with the human experience. Once we understand just how truly important they are to us, we can understand how truly important they are to our presentations.

1. To help us understand the world.

Author of The Art of Immersion, Frank Rose says, “Just as the brain detects patterns in the visual forms of nature — a face, a figure, a flower . . . so too it detects patterns in information. Stories are recognizable patterns, and in those patterns we find meaning. We use stories to make sense of our world and to share that understanding with others. They are the signal within the noise.” Stories are a familiar pattern of human communication. So we gravitate towards them.

If you’ve ever been listening to a presentation in which the speaker moves from other types of content into a story, you’ll notice that the audience suddenly perks up. Stories catch our attention. One of my favorite ways to start a presentation or a conversation alike is to simply ask, “Can I tell you a story?” That simple question almost always opens the door for both connection and understanding.

2. To help us explain the world to others.

One of the main reasons we use stories is that they help us to make sense of things. There is an important link between knowing and telling. In his book The Content of Form, Hayden White says, “narrative might well be considered a solution to a problem of general human concern, namely, the problem of how to translate knowing into telling.” Stories are how we best understand things. But they are also how we best explain and share them with others.

For example, say you crawl into bed beside your spouse at the end of a long day. He or she asks, “how was your day?” You know what the day was like. You lived it. But you now need to tell it to someone else. You probably won’t run through a grocery list of events. Instead, you will communicate your experience in chronological format starting with what happened earliest and moving through time. You’ll add characters like the villain who cut you off on the way to work or the heroic coworker who volunteered to help you with a tough project. This example serves to remind us that when we want to tell someone something, narrative is our go-to format.

3. To shape and promote a worldview.

Stories aren’t just fun or informative; they are persuasive. Any time we share a story, we have an agenda. We are asking others to see the event or characters through our own lens. You’ve heard that there are two sides to every story, right? That old cliché seeks to remind us that when we hear a story, we are only hearing what the teller wants us to hear, and in his/her own words. And when we tell a story, we are telling it from our biased perspective.

So when we tell stories, either in everyday conversation or in presentations, we can ask these questions to keep us in check:

  • Am I telling the truth or my truth?
  • What other perspectives could be taken?
  • Am I being open and honest about the agenda I have for telling this story?
  • Will it benefit my audience to see the story from another angle?
  • What details and information am I leaving out, and why?

One of the most powerful things you can do as a speaker is to harness the power of stories in your presentations. After all, they are the means by which we understand, share, and shape the world in which we live.

We’d love to help you tell your story. We’re here to help with presentation development, design, and delivery.

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