Storytelling

Article: How to tell stories about complex issues

‘Storytelling is one of the greatest tools we have for engaging communities on complex social and environmental issues, in ways that can drive belief and behaviour change. People are far more likely to remember information if it reaches them in the form of a story.’

The previous article I read about myths/legends/folktales started making me more interested in the power and importance some of these old tales have to shape human morals. It then lead me to think about the importance of storytelling and using it as a tool to teach people things – as this articles goes on to talk about.

I agree with the article that storytelling is an incredibly easy way to remember certain information. I still remember basic tales that were told to me as a child – such as the Japanese Kappa, a creature that drowns children who come to play in rivers. Thinking about it now, it was most likely a story told to scare young people away from rivers so they would not accidentally down.

The article goes onto argue that ‘using data and abstract terms like “equity” and “justice…leaves space for people to insert their assumptions and biases about what those words mean, and no one has ever taken action because of a great graph or data point.’ Therefore, it may be helpful if you could try tackling these difficult complex issues such as climate change, criminal justice reform, sexual violence, racial justice, health equality, etc in the form of storytelling. Scientific studies of ‘how to tell stories intentionally to overcome psychological barriers that can inhibit or encourage belief and behaviour change…can help organizations tell compelling and persuasive stories about complex issues.’

I do not think this solution would be an automatic change, plus there are already many stories out there that try to do this, however I do believe that storytelling is a powerful tool that can be used to shape people’s morals, especially from a young age. I am interested in investigating this topic further and focusing on it for part 3. It could be fascinating to explore an issue myself through storytelling too.

Article link: How to tell stories about complex issues - by Annie Neimand, May 7th 2018

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