The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human

Humans live in landscapes of make-believe. We spin fantasies. We devour novels, films, and plays. Even sporting events and criminal trials unfold as narratives. Yet the world of story has long remained an undiscovered and unmapped country. It’s easy to say that humans are “wired” for story, but why?

In this delightful and original book, Jonathan Gottschall offers the first unified theory of storytelling. He argues that stories help us navigate life’s complex social problems—just as flight simulators prepare pilots for difficult situations. Storytelling has evolved, like other behaviors, to ensure our survival.

Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, Gottschall tells us what it means to be a storytelling animal. Did you know that the more absorbed you are in a story, the more it changes your behavior? That all children act out the same kinds of stories, whether they grow up in a slum or a suburb? That people who read more fiction are more empathetic?

Of course, our story instinct has a darker side. It makes us vulnerable to conspiracy theories, advertisements, and narratives about ourselves that are more “truthy” than true. National myths can also be terribly dangerous: Hitler’s ambitions were partly fueled by a story.

But as Gottschall shows in this remarkable book, stories can also change the world for the better. Most successful stories are moral—they teach us how to live, whether explicitly or implicitly, and bind us together around common values. We know we are master shapers of story. The Storytelling Animal finally reveals how stories shape us.

• The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling
• Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence
• Improving Your Storytelling: Beyond the Basics for All Who Tell Stories in Work and Play (American Storytelling)
• Long Story Short: The Only Storytelling Guide You'll Ever Need
• Business Storytelling For Dummies
• Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact
• Where There's Smoke, There's Dinner: Stories of a Seared Childhood
• Favorite Folktales from Around the World (The Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library)
• Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Tell (and Live) the Best Stories Will Rule the Future