In Defence of Stories

In Defence of Stories

Leah Eustace, MPhil, CFRE, ACFREChief Idea Goddess

Good Works@LeahEustace

“Storytelling is so last year.”

Actually, it’s so last

100,000 years

Person 1: “Where’s Jack?”

Person 2: “Well … I didn’t want to have to tell you, but I saw a yellow VW parked in front of Susan’s.”

Props: Kendall Haven

He went to the store.

Fred died.

Sharon went hungry and wept.

Props: Kendall Haven

Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press

Cathal McNaughton/Reuters

Let’s unravel our brain

How we think we make decisions

How we actually make decisions

Thinking fast and slow

Emotion vs logic

Emotion vs logic

http://bit.ly/damasioTED

Feeling emotion

Empathy is the ability to see the world as another person, to share and understand another person’s feelings, needs, concerns and/or emotional state.

(source: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/)

Feeling emotion

What are we getting at here?

Emotion trumps logic …

Logic seems to take over when things are far away and hard to grasp …

Scenario one: Karen Klein

Scenario two: Syria

But then came Alan Kurdi

Something going on really far away, for a really long time, involving millions of people, suddenly became relatable.

Why?

Donors experience psychic numbing

“If I think of the mass I will never act, if I think of the one, I will.”

How many saved lives?

Give $10 million to fight a disease claiming 20,000 lives and save 10,000.

orGive $10 million to fight a disease claiming

290,000 lives and save 20,000.

Emotion drives action

How did Alan’s story make you feel?

How we feel story

How we feel story

Our brains change as we age

Visualized autobiography

Psychological bias

Why, not howThe cause, not the institution

“Your $100 donation today will help us double the size of our cancer center.”

“Your $100 donation today will give a cancer patient’s mother a home away from home tonight.”

Stories are all powerful

Kronberg Castle

@LeahEustace#NPStoryConf

Leah Eustace, MPhil, CFRE, ACFREChief Idea Goddess

Good Worksleah@goodworksco.ca

Before you go …