filling homes with warmth and calm, while men took on the role of a brutish and wary security service guarding the cave paradise.
Oxytocin also helps people sense the emotions of others. Even a small dose of oxytocin can improve how well someone understands others, leading to better relationships both at home and at work. For example, when men are given oxytocin through a nasal spray, they become better at noticing other people’s feelings, make more eye contact, and show more trust – sometimes even becoming overly trusting. This hormone reduces selfishness and strengthens trust within groups, though it does not necessarily increase distrust of outsiders.
Experiments have shown how powerful oxytocin can be. In one study, men were exposed to oxytocin and then shown images of people while hearing unpleasant news. Despite the negative information, their perception of the people’s attractiveness did not change, and they were more likely to trust the individuals in the images, even sharing personal information with them.
Oxytocin is produced when people feel cared for and trusted. This encourages social interaction and boosts empathy. In fact, to persuade someone, it may be enough to simply inspire their empathy. By modeling emotions effectively, it is possible to motivate others to take specific actions.
Paul Zak, a scientist, explored ways to naturally stimulate the production of oxytocin to encourage cooperative behavior. In one experiment, participants at a charity event watched two videos. One presented facts in a formal and emotionless way, while the other delivered the same information through a dramatic and emotionally engaging story. The viewers of the second video donated significantly more money, proving that emotional storytelling is far more effective in driving action. This ability to evoke empathy and trust often determines whether a panhandler receives money or is ignored. Why do people give money to some beggars and not to others? Because some succeed in evoking sympathy and, as a result, trust in their plight, while others fail to convince. To capture attention, emotion is needed; to inspire belief, empathy is essential. Thus, if you need to persuade someone to do anything – donate money, choose a brand, believe a story, and more – you must evoke sympathy and empathy. To the popular aphorism «No one can be trusted,» one might add, «Not even yourself.»
In 1976, Francis Veber’s film The Toy, starring Pierre Richard, tells the story of a journalist who temporarily becomes the plaything of a media tycoon’s son. In one scene, Pierre Richard’s character invites the spoiled boy to play a game of running a newspaper. The child gets absorbed in the activity, but the journalist is taken aback when young Éric Rambal-Cochet confidently offers advice on headlines: «Instead of stating, „100 died in a US train crash,“ it should read, „100 French people killed in a horrific disaster.“ Dad says the French only care about French corpses.»
In today’s interpretation, it can be said that the boy implied that changing the emotional texture of the phrase can attract attention and elevate cortisol and oxytocin levels in readers.
The more often certain emotions are associated with certain images and phrases, the more stable this connection becomes.
The introduction of functional MRI (fMRI) technology revolutionized the study of brain activity. At Princeton University, neuroscientist Uri Hasson measured the brain activity of a woman as she told a deeply personal story. Her auditory cortex responded to her own voice, and her frontal and parietal lobes – the areas of the brain linked to emotions – were active as she processed her narrative. When others listened to her story, their brains showed similar activity, activating the same emotional areas at the same moments. Hasson concluded that the brain’s patterns, whether triggered by personal experiences, reading, or storytelling, blur the lines between experiencing events firsthand and hearing about them.
The concept of «limbic resonance» helps explain how mothers instinctively «sense» their children. This synchronization of the limbic systems – the brain’s emotional center – of a parent and child relies on nonverbal signals. These same signals are crucial in broader human interactions. The more people share stories, the more likely they are to experience this neural synchronization and emotional connection.
Humans often act based on stories, adopting the experiences of storytellers as if they were their own. For example, someone trying to defuse a fake bomb instinctively looks for red and blue wires, influenced by countless movie scenes. Similarly, when people see a moving light in the night sky, they may think of aliens, as this is the most common narrative about such events.
Raymond Mar studied brain activity during fiction reading and found that sensory and motor regions of the brain activated as if readers were living the events themselves. He concluded that the ability to immerse oneself in a story improves empathy and social understanding. Interestingly, people who read fiction regularly tend to have better social skills and stronger support networks than those who read nonfiction, who report higher stress levels. Mar suggested that the key difference lies in how stories are structured: narratives create stronger engagement than factual explanations.
In the end, presenting information as a story, drama, or another form of narrative becomes much more convincing when it deeply involves the audience. The more engaged people feel, the greater the effect on their understanding and beliefs. This process allows people to identify with the characters in a story, making fictional figures feel as real as close family members. The blurred line between fiction and reality takes on new meaning as scientists study how stories shape people’s views of the world.
Melanie Green and Timothy Brock found that stories can change beliefs by reducing awareness of real-world facts that contradict the story. Emotional narratives encourage people to identify with characters, making the story’s message more persuasive. Anneke de Graaf and Letty Hustinx showed that narratives with emotional tension and logical flow are more effective at aligning beliefs with the storyteller’s message. This highlights the importance of well-constructed storytelling.
Beyond the physiological and logical aspects of how people perceive information, stories also serve as powerful learning tools. Studies show that learning reshapes the brain’s structure, forming new connections through everyday experiences, education, and emotional stories. These changes emphasize how deeply storytelling influences the brain’s development.
Although there is still much to learn about the brain, what we do know shows how stories affect emotions, trust, beliefs, and actions. Just as food nourishes the body, well-structured and meaningful stories nourish the mind. If good food gives energy, helps growth, and brings satisfaction, what might we gain from compelling stories and thoughtful narratives?
Thinking, or the Narrative Fair
Do we think, or do we merely justify ourselves? Why is humanity always enslaved by the story it is told?
My son will be a lawyer like me, and I’m counting on his domain being a prosperous practice.
Pierre Verne, father of Jules Verne. His son became a great writer.
Modern knowledge already enables us to deliberately shape worldviews according to externally imposed meanings and externally pursued goals. We are both perfect and imperfect at the same time. The prevailing imperative of consuming in the here and now, characteristic of us all, already casts doubt on the existence of future generations. One thing can be stated with confidence: the majority of humanity, having managed to survive under dubious regimes and in a toxic environment, will inevitably be enslaved by the stories told to them, no matter the circumstances. And enslaved, dependent people always underestimate their own abilities and potential.
We do not notice changes because we live in a world of stereotypes – stereotypes of perceiving meaning. Our brain and body seize every opportunity to avoid activating consciousness because they do not intend to rely on it. All our lives, we try to train the mammal that we are – or at least explain and justify its behavior to ourselves. A person cannot be understood merely as what they do, say, or think. Behavior can be shaped by entirely different and hidden causes: actions by the instinct to impress or escape, words by the desire to dominate