Here’s a bit of marketing jargon for you: “hard-wired”.
What’s interesting about it is that writers, marketeers, psychologists and neuroscientists all agree that we are hard-wired for story.
I agree, too, but before we start to lift the lid – literally – on the brain to discover why, let’s just make sure we know what we mean by this term.
Discovering the story-brain
It means that there are anatomical, neurological and biochemical structures, pathways and circuits in the brain that are encoded specifically to respond to stories.
We do not need to acquire this capability. Or have it taught to us. It is inbuilt. It is, to venture a second time into cliché, in our DNA.
Every human being is programmed from conception to respond to stories. So if you’re in the communications business – as a copywriter, marketeer, salesperson, politician, novelist or journalist – you should, at the very least, be aware of this fact.
