This document discusses using narrative and storytelling techniques to communicate science. It explains that stories about scientific discoveries, scientists' lives, and implications of science can engage audiences. Key elements of stories like plot, characters, and setting are reviewed. Cognitive psychology research suggests stories are how humans understand the world as they involve social interactions and convey values. The document provides examples of narratives that can frame science like history, discovery processes, and solving problems. Storytelling is presented as an effective way to communicate complex scientific concepts and issues like climate change.

1. Science Storytelling
Lecture 4 – Paige Brown
#SciCommLSU
Conflict Narrative. N.C. Wyeth
The Boy’s King Arthur
(Wikimedia, Public Domain)

2. Telling Stories
about Science
We can tell stories about
the scientific discovery
or the scientific process.
We can tell stories about
the scientist’s life,
struggles, etc.
We can tell stories about
the implications of the
scientific discoveries for
everyday life, or for the
future.
What other stories can
we tell?

3. Elements of Story
 Plot
 Strong characters
 Who are your characters? The scientists? The people affected by
scientific issues / decisions? The reader? Non-human
characters?
 Action / Climax
 Setting
 Transportation: Imagery, Affect (emotion), Attention-grabbing
devices.
 “description of a steady state of the world, followed by a
description of an event that puts the world into chaotic state,
followed by a description of the world in a new steady state.”
– Telling Science Stories

4. “It is our stories that make us human.” – Read & Miller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ

6. http://www.bradhuebert.com/the-heros-journey/

7. Importance of Narrative
 Narratives are important means “to convey information in
an accurate, attractive, imaginative and memorable way.” –
Negrete & Lartigue
 Narratives, or stories, are easier to comprehend and more
memorable than scientific facts. – Negrete & Lartigue

8. What Common
Narratives Can You Think
of that Surround
Science?

9. Narrative structures that have been proposed to
enhance popular interest in science:
 History – the history of a field, of a scientific discovery, etc.
 The (often eccentric) scientist biography
 Drama – a problem that science can or has solved
 The “hard-fought” discovery
 The (solved or unsolved) mystery
 The untold story

10. Narratives Used by Science Communicators:
http://f1000research.com/articles/3-128/v1
 “People like the underdog” – the narrative of unlikely astronaut,
of the scientist “fighting” against the deadly disease, etc.
 Overcoming obstacles; the scientist as “hero”
 Science-fiction fantasies
 Science used as a tool to solve problems
 The history of the scientist – why did he / she get into this work?
What are his / her motivations?
 The patient story
 See anything common in these narratives? The narrative almost
always brings in a human element. Humans are included in the
story. In some cases, though, the science (animals, molecules, etc.)
are anthropomorphized – stories told from their perspective.

11. Cognitive Psychology of Stories
 Social interaction is central for human beings. Stories are
fundamentally about social interaction. – Read & Miller
 For humans, social knowledge is at the center of the
cognitive system. Knowledge of physical objects (and even
scientific concepts) is understood through relations to the
social. – Read & Miller
 “Knowledge of the physical world is almost always taken
with reference to human concerns.” – Read & Miller
 Stories are also memory structures – they make it easier
for us to find (in our brains) stored information later when it
is needed. Stories and their narratives serve as cognitive
structures for organizing and storing information. (Schank &
Abelson)

12. Cognitive Psychology of Stories
 Even deeper then memory structures, stories serve social
goals: gossiping, group cohesion, learning from others’ /
past mistakes, communicator morals & values.
 Story structure is universally basic to conversation and
meaning making. – Read & Miller
 Humans appear to be ready from a very young age to hear
and understand stories. – Read & Miller

13. Telling Stories that Communicate Values
 Values may shift as humans adjust to differing
environmental and other social conditions.
 Altruism, Protecting the Environment vs. Power, Security
 Conformity, Tradition vs. Self-direction, Curiosity
 People tell different stories to make different values more
salient (prominent / available in memory) for local survival
or cultural cohesion
 For example, anthropologists have argued that when
food is hard to come by, many cultures will tell stories
about sharing.
 Fables (stories) often have moral lessons.

14. The Ant and the Grasshopper
 One of Aesop's Fables, providing
an ambivalent moral lesson about
the virtues of hard work and
planning for the future.
 A grasshopper that has spent the
warm months singing while the
ant(s) worked to store up food for
winter. When that season arrives,
the grasshopper finds itself dying
of hunger and begs the ant for
food. To its reply when asked that
it had sung all summer, it is
rebuked for its idleness and
advised to dance during the winter.

15. Stories for Climate Change
 A recent report on communicating climate science by
the UCL Policy Commission notes that narrative is a
powerful means to engage with an audience and convey
complex information
 “Stories are the means by which people make sense of the
world, learn values, form beliefs, and give shape to their
lives. Stories are everywhere [but] they are absent from
climate change communication.”
 “Fiction is great – it can help us really feel the horror of
what we’re headed for, change our lives in a deeper way
than scientific projections alone could do, and give us ideas
to help us adapt to the change.” – Jane Rawson

16. Climate Science Fiction
http://www.npr.org/2013/04/20/176713022/s
o-hot-right-now-has-climate-change-created-a-new-
literary-genre

17. Getting the Story
How can you get the ‘story’ out of
science, a scientific paper, an interview
with a scientist, etc.?
 Dig. Pay attention to colors, sounds, smell, textures. These will make the
story come alive. “It doesn’t matter that 55% of the invertebrates in your
story were impacted, but rather what they looked like, how they smelled,
and what the day was like.”
 Shed preconceptions. Don’t go in have a narrative already in your head.
Some stories are hidden in the data, the small details, etc.
 Character matters. The scientist is only one character: there are many
others who shouldn’t be ignored.
 History matters. Context will make your story. Consider the history of a
scientific field, the scientists that came before, the history of how a
scientific issue has been communicated or interpreted, etc.
 Find a guide. Find experts or people with direct experience that can help
you better understand the story embedded in the science. A historian of
the field. A blogger who writes about this regularly?

18. Telling the Story
 The story won’t always materialize magically with a perfect
beginning and end. Sometimes you are starting in the middle of a
bigger story.
 Tell the story in an order that makes sense. Often that is
chronological order. Other times you can make a point my messing
with traditional chronological order. Start at the end, etc.
 Verbs! Create action. “Scowled, brooded, gasped, puzzled,
obsessed, twirled, dismissed, twinkled, and belched.”
 Facts and details matter. Don’t use fuzzy language or
generalizations.
 Try to figure out where your story ends. Have a destination, even if
the destination is more questioning.
 Invite your readers / listeners to be a part of the story. Where do
they fit in?

19. Discussion: How is the narrative or story
different than the news pyramid?

21. Critical Thinking: What ethical considerations are
there to communicating science through narrative?
What is the underlying purpose of using narrative: comprehension or
persuasion?
What are the appropriate levels of accuracy to maintain?
How might narratives oversimplify science or lead to
misrepresentations of science / scientists?
We should take care that our narratives don’t misplace blame for
problems or oppress particular views, etc.

22. More Reading
 Creating Characters on the Page:
http://www.theopennotebook.com/2014/08/19/creating-characters/
 Tales from the Sea: Scientists Take a Storytelling Journey:
http://compassblogs.org/blog/2014/08/18/tales-from-the-sea-
scientists-take-a-storytelling-journey/?
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