Is There a Way to Screw It Up?

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Scientists have credited these sort of the sicoms, these t v dramas with a this massive social transformation. But there's a way to screw it up, and put overt politics in them - where guys in red hats show up to oppress the gay guys. People who are tempted to wear red hats realize that this is an attack on them,. realize that they are being converted into the villains of the story. And then the story becomes just preaching to the choir. The research sort of suggests ted. If you watch likable gay characters on a sitcom, your own attitudes of tolerance reliably go up er, your prejudice reliably goes down. So one of my suggestions is that we should keep telling stories

Humans are storytelling animals. Stories are what make our societies possible. Countless books celebrate their virtues. But Jonathan Gottschall, an expert on the science of stories, argues that there is a dark side to storytelling we can no longer ignore. Storytelling, the very tradition that built human civilization, may be the thing that destroys it.

In The Story Paradox, Gottschall explores how a broad consortium of psychologists, communications specialists, neuroscientists, and literary quants are using the scientific method to study how stories affect our brains.

In this conversation based on his new book, Gottschall reveals why our biggest asset has become our greatest threat, and what, if anything, can be done. It is a call to stop asking, “How we can change the world through stories?” and start asking, “How can we save the world from stories?”