How Stories Change Us PDF Download

Author: Elaine Reese
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197747922
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
In recent years, gold-standard experimental evidence on the benefits of reading fiction has exploded. Why do we love stories from books, TV and movies, and videogames? What do fictional stories have to do with stories from real life? How do stories impact our own and our children's brain development, reading skills, social understanding, and well-being? In How Stories Change Us, Elaine Reese integrates the latest scientific research on stories from fiction (books, TV shows and movies, videogames) with stories from real life (our personal experiences, including on social media) across the lifespan. The book offers an authoritative yet accessible overview of the new interdisciplinary science of stories, told by a developmental psychologist and autobiographical memory expert with over thirty years of experience conducting research on stories. Throughout, Reese adopts a developmental perspective by tracing the impact of stories from pre-birth to old age. Drawing upon illustrative examples from her 20-year longitudinal study Origins of Memory as well as from her own life, Reese synthesizes cutting-edge research on the benefits and pitfalls of stories and offers practical tips for parents, teachers, librarians, and policymakers. Reese concludes that people have a preferred fictional story delivery system, whether it's reading, watching, or gaming, and she advocates for a more integrated science of stories to allow us to better choose the stories we consume and tell.

Author: Robert J. Shiller
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691212074
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
From Nobel Prize–winning economist and New York Times bestselling author Robert Shiller, a groundbreaking account of how stories help drive economic events—and why financial panics can spread like epidemic viruses Stories people tell—about financial confidence or panic, housing booms, or Bitcoin—can go viral and powerfully affect economies, but such narratives have traditionally been ignored in economics and finance because they seem anecdotal and unscientific. In this groundbreaking book, Robert Shiller explains why we ignore these stories at our peril—and how we can begin to take them seriously. Using a rich array of examples and data, Shiller argues that studying popular stories that influence individual and collective economic behavior—what he calls "narrative economics"—may vastly improve our ability to predict, prepare for, and lessen the damage of financial crises and other major economic events. The result is nothing less than a new way to think about the economy, economic change, and economics. In a new preface, Shiller reflects on some of the challenges facing narrative economics, discusses the connection between disease epidemics and economic epidemics, and suggests why epidemiology may hold lessons for fighting economic contagions.

Author: Rickie Solinger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135901260
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 477

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Book Description
Telling Stories to Change the World is a powerful collection of essays about community-based and interest-based projects where storytelling is used as a strategy for speaking out for justice. Contributors from locations across the globe—including Uganda, Darfur, China, Afghanistan, South Africa, New Orleans, and Chicago—describe grassroots projects in which communities use narrative as a way of exploring what a more just society might look like and what civic engagement means. These compelling accounts of resistance, hope, and vision showcase the power of the storytelling form to generate critique and collective action. Together, these projects demonstrate the contemporary power of stories to stimulate engagement, active citizenship, the pride of identity, and the humility of human connectedness.

Author: Jonathan Gottschall
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547391404
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
A provocative scholar delivers the first book on the new science of storytelling: the latest thinking on why we tell stories and what stories reveal about human nature.

Author: Will Storr
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 168335818X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
The compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing that reveals how the brain responds to storytelling Stories shape who we are. They drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions and mold our beliefs. Storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human. So, how do master storytellers compel us? In The Science of Storytelling, award-winning writer and acclaimed teacher of creative writing Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can write better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers—and also our brains—create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change. Will Storr’s superbly chosen examples range from Harry Potter to Jane Austen to Alice Walker, Greek drama to Russian novels to Native American folk tales, King Lear to Breaking Bad to children’s stories. With sections such as “The Dramatic Question,” “Creating a World,” and “Plot, Endings, and Meaning,” as well as a practical, step-by-step appendix dedicated to “The Sacred Flaw Approach,” The Science of Storytelling reveals just what makes stories work, placing it alongside such creative writing classics as John Yorke’s Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey into Story and Lajos Egri’s The Art of Dramatic Writing. Enlightening and empowering, The Science of Storytelling is destined to become an invaluable resource for writers of all stripes, whether novelist, screenwriter, playwright, or writer of creative or traditional nonfiction.

Author: Paul J. Zak
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
ISBN: 0814437672
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
Why is the culture of a stagnant workplace so difficult to improve? Learn to cultivate a workplace where trust, joy, and commitment compounds naturally by harnessing the power of neurochemistry! For decades, business leaders have been equipping themselves with every book, philosophy, reward, and program, yet companies everywhere continue to struggle with toxic cultures, and the unhappiness and low productivity that go with them. In Trust Factor, neuroscientist Paul Zak shows that innate brain functions hold the answers we’ve been looking for. Put simply, the key to providing an engaging, encouraging, positive culture that keeps your employees energized is trust. When someone shows you trust, a feel-good jolt of oxytocin surges through your brain and triggers you to reciprocate. Within this book, Zak explains topics such as: How brain chemicals affect behavior Why trust gets squashed How to stimulate trust within your employees And much more! This book also incorporates science-based insights for building high-trust organizations with successful examples from The Container Store, Zappos, and Herman Miller. Stop recycling the same ineffective strategies and programs for improving culture. By using the simple mechanisms in Trust Factor, you can create a perpetual trust-building cycle between your management and staff, thus ending stubborn workplace patterns.

Author: Dacher Keltner
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393076857
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Leading scientists and science writers reflect on the life-changing, perspective-changing, new science of human goodness. Where once science painted humans as self-seeking and warlike, today scientists of many disciplines are uncovering the deep roots of human goodness. At the forefront of this revolution in scientific understanding is the Greater Good Science Center, based at the University of California, Berkeley. The center fuses its cutting-edge research with inspiring stories of compassion in action in Greater Good magazine. The best of these writings are collected here, and contributions from Steven Pinker, Robert Sapolsky, Paul Ekman, Michael Pollan, and the Dalai Lama, among others, will make you think not only about what it means to be happy and fulfilled but also what it means to lead an ethical and compassionate life.

Author: Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119002265
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Don't simply show your data—tell a story with it! Storytelling with Data teaches you the fundamentals of data visualization and how to communicate effectively with data. You'll discover the power of storytelling and the way to make data a pivotal point in your story. The lessons in this illuminative text are grounded in theory, but made accessible through numerous real-world examples—ready for immediate application to your next graph or presentation. Storytelling is not an inherent skill, especially when it comes to data visualization, and the tools at our disposal don't make it any easier. This book demonstrates how to go beyond conventional tools to reach the root of your data, and how to use your data to create an engaging, informative, compelling story. Specifically, you'll learn how to: Understand the importance of context and audience Determine the appropriate type of graph for your situation Recognize and eliminate the clutter clouding your information Direct your audience's attention to the most important parts of your data Think like a designer and utilize concepts of design in data visualization Leverage the power of storytelling to help your message resonate with your audience Together, the lessons in this book will help you turn your data into high impact visual stories that stick with your audience. Rid your world of ineffective graphs, one exploding 3D pie chart at a time. There is a story in your data—Storytelling with Data will give you the skills and power to tell it!

Author: Lisa B. Marshall
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 1250029589
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Have you ever lost out on a promotion? Struggled with a difficult conversation? Been put on the spot and blanked? Imagine if... ...you were better at persuading others and negotiating for what you want. ...you were more fluent at introducing yourself, making conversation, and following up. ...you were better at delivering feedback, receiving criticism, and using positive language. ...you were perceived as more diplomatic and charismatic. Smart Talk applies up-to-date communication research to everyday situations and gives smart, practical, step-by-step directions to achieve results. Smart Talk is no ordinary book— it's the Swiss Army Knife of communication—a comprehensive set of tools to build strong relationships and avoid communication breakdowns. With proven strategies and practical action plans, Smart Talk will help you resolve conflicts, strengthen your natural charisma, and master the art of persuasion. Never again will you dread a holiday party or be rendered speechless at a business meeting. Backed by solid research and written in an engaging narrative style with a warm sense of humor, communication expert Lisa B. Marshall translates her wealth of experience into practical, fresh advice to help you navigate any complex situation, and achieve professional success.

Author: Joseph E. Davis
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791489531
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
Despite the amount of storytelling in social movements, little attention has been paid to narrative as a form of movement discourse or as a mode of social interaction. Stories of Change is a systematic study of narrative as well as a demonstration of the power of narrative analysis to illuminate many features of contemporary social movements. Davis includes a wide array of stories of change—stories of having been harmed or wronged, stories of conflict with unjust authorities, stories of liberation and empowerment, and stories of strategic success and failure. By showing how these stories are a powerful vehicle for producing, regulating, and diffusing shared meaning, the contributors explore movement stories, their functions, and the conditions under which they are created and performed. They show how narrative study can illuminate social movement emergence, recruitment, internal dynamics, and identity building.