Can the Same Narrative Hold a Different Quantum of Power?

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I love the idea of being over for something like that. It's exciting But it does mean there are some unanswered questions. Can the same narrative hold a different amount of power if told by one person compared to another? I think this is also one where that's a great area where research needs to go a little further and find that out. Some people just have sort of a gift for telling stories compellingly or they have amazing voices or things like that Um, I suspect that matters too. So what I want to do though is give people an opportunity to keep up with what you're doing.

In this episode we discuss the power of narratives to affect our beliefs and behaviors with Melanie C. Green, a psychologist who studies the persuasive power of fiction.

According to Nielsen, the TV ratings company, the average person in the United States watches about 34 hours of television a week. That’s 73 days a year. Over the course of a lifetime, the average American can expect to spend a full decade lost in the trance spell that only powerful narratives can cast over the human mind.

What is the power of all the stories we consume through television? What about movies and books and comics and video games and everything else? How does it affect our beliefs and behaviors?

We discuss all of that and more with Melanie C. Green who is a social psychologist who developed the transportation into a narrative worlds theory that helps explain total story immersion and how it translates into influence over our real-world behaviors. Green is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. You can find her on Twitter using the handle @NarrProf or her website.

After the interview I eat some chocolate orange cherry cookies sent in by Elliot Jones and then discuss how photographs can either enhance or dampen your memory depending on how you use them.

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