Page 72 - The Power to Change Anything

Change the Way You Change Minds 61

detail than the other two groups (that was predicted), but they
also found the story more credible. MBA students gave more
credence to a story than to cold hard facts.
But why? Why do even the most educated of people tend
to set aside their well-honed cynicism and critical nature when
listening to a story? Because stories help individuals transport
themselves away from the role of a listener who is rigorously
applying rules of logic, analysis, and criticism and into the story
itself. According to creative writing expert Lajos Egri, here’s
how to transport the listener into a story.

The first step is to make your reader or viewer identify
your character as someone he knows. Step two—if the
author can make the audience imagine that what is hap-
pening can happen to him, the situation will be perme-
ated with aroused emotion and the viewer will experience
a sensation so great that he will feel not as a spectator
but as the participant of an exciting drama before him.

Concrete and vivid stories exert extraordinary influence
because they transport people out of the role of critic and into
the role of participant. The more poignant, vibrant, and rele-
vant the story, the more the listener moves from thinking about
the inherent arguments to experiencing every element of the
tale itself. Stories don’t merely trump verbal persuasion by dis-
proving counterarguments; stories keep the listener from offer-
ing counterarguments in the first place.

Motivating

And now for the final dimension that sets stories ahead of
plain verbal persuasion: human emotions. Finding a way to
encourage others to both understand and believe in a new
point of view may not be enough to propel them into action.
Individuals must actually care about what they believe if their
belief is going to get them, say, off the comfortable couch and