Just Story It

A new look at the narrative in legal settings with reactions from two trial consultants. To begin, researchers in the area of story-based persuasion draw a distinction between argument-based persuasive communications, also referred to as rhetorical communications, and story- or narrative-based persuasive communications.

Are people persuaded by a story or by rational rhetoric? Or a combination of both? Are YOU more persuaded by a story, rhetorical communications, or a combintion of both?

Hmmmm -- what interesting questions! This article tackling these questions is a bit of along read, so grab a cup of coffee one morning this weekend and dive in.

The conversations about storytelling these days promote the idea that everyone is persuaded by stories. Not so!! The researchers here took the context of trial lawyers to test this premis and find out what REALLY persuades people.

As it turns out, several factors come into play as to whether someone is persuaded by stories only. One factor is the individual's need for cognition like debate, solving puzzles, or considering complex problems.  Who knew??!!

Anyway, this is a very interesting article and really puts storytelling as a persuasive medium into context -- and expands our notions about stories, while also course-correcting our assumptions.

The language of the article is somewhat academic but nothing daunting. You will be able to easily get through it.

And I know it will help you get smarter and wiser about how and when to use stories for maximum impact.

Here's the link to the original article: 

http://www.thejuryexpert.com/2011/05/narrative-persuasion/ 

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it