Our lab has been investigating how computers can use narratives to change people's attitudes and behaviors. As a result, a recent New York Times Magazine article by William Safire caught my attention. He outlines how political strategists talk more and more about the power of narrative in winning elections.
My biggest take away from the article was a definition of narrative that matches our lab's thinking: Narrative is "the representation of events and characters in some causal or at least noncoincidental sequence" (Safire quotes Jim Phelan, editor of a journal called Narrative). In other words, narratives show us causal relationships: a --> b, x --> y, and so on.
Let me go a bit further and get on my soapbox for a paragraph or two . . .
I believe we humans are hardwired to absorb narratives, because through narrative we learn about causal relationships; we learn how things work in the world. This has adaptive value. But it can also cause problems. We absorb narratives so readily, it's difficult to counteract a false narrative, a story that shows a false causal relationship. For example, if I tell a story about how eating organic blueberries caused me to grow to 6'3", that idea is going to stick in your head. It will be hard for you to erase the relationship in your mind between organic blueberries and growth. That's why, I believe, so many cultures developed strict rules about telling falsehoods--or bearing false witness, if you will. Once told, these falsehoods cannot be completely erased; at the very least they leave a residue that clogs our thinking.
In today's world the narratives embedded in TV sitcoms, commercials, and pro sports have displaced traditional narratives. This is unfortunate because the traditional narratives had value for successful living (if they weren't useful, the narratives wouldn't have survived through the ages). Most narratives fed to us by popular media ("buy brand X and people will fall in love with you") fail to show causal relationships that have value for our communities or cultures. We don't have much control over TV narratives, but each year we become more capable of creating computer-based narratives with global reach. And that's exciting. The mobile phone platform seems especially promising. As a result, I've challenged one of my graduate students to focus on how narratives can be conveyed through mobile phones. If this resonates with you, get in touch with us.
Posted by BJ Fogg at December 9, 2004 10:27 AM