Stories universally involve a character struggling towards a goal, often facing the worst days of their lives. They revolve around trouble and are driven by the fear of protagonists not getting their deserved happy ending or antagonists escaping consequences. Across all storytelling traditions, there is a theme of poetic justice and an underlying moral or ethical dimension. Stories serve as a way for human beings to structure meaning by processing raw information and events.
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?”