Story Sparks Our Rewards Center
I'm not a regular cryer, but I often cry when I listen to music.
Not happy music or sad music, not poignant or thought-provoking or overwhelming or insightful music. My tears have nothing to do with theme; love, pain, joy, sorrow, thrill, loss, none merit a consistent reaction. I cry when my mind perceives a truly great story, experienced in the unexpected and indescribably ideal partnership between a meaningful lyric, perfectly aligned with just the right melody, delivered through expert performance. In a few notes or chords, I'm gone, overcome by emotion. And gratefully so.
The Science of The Rewards Center
The scientific reason many of us feel such a powerful response to music is due to a trifecta of simultaneous stimulations across our brain's reward center. Specifically, electrical activity fires three distinct and coordinated areas of information processing in our right temporal lobe, which processes audio, ourorbitofrontal cortex, responsible for emotion, and our supplementary motor area, which controls movement. The right piece of music plays, the dopamine is released, the brain trio springs into action, and the emotions flow. Hormones and neurotransmitters join forces to create a panoply of physiological response: Tears, chills, excitement, rage, fear, lust, depends on the song and the individual hearing it.
Thibault Chabin and neuroscientists at the Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté in Besançon used EEG to map activity in the reward system of the brain in people who experience pleasurable "chills" from listening to music. Chabin's study, reported in Frontiers, demonstrates new insights into how organic chills are produced, and why.
Turns out there's a science to how we experience a song—which is really just another type of story. That same science applies to our #CorporateStorytelling when we deliver a brand or directive message to our colleagues, teams, or customers, from a large stage or one-to-one over a Zoom call. Stories engage emotion in a way that factual information or strategic discussion simply can't and won't.
Why Do We Cry?
Stories are also much easier to remember than facts, recalling lived experiences and past events, sounds, smells, tastes, or passions. Story ignites emotion, emotion releases all the good stuff we crave; oxytocin, cortisol, dopamine, endorphins.
In September, Psychology Today published an interview with celebrated author Nicholas Sparks titled Why You Should Read More Books That Make You Cry. Sparks' 1996 The Notebook did just that for many people—but not for me. Sentimentality isn't really my thing. Art is. I cry most at art. The beauty of a stunning, overwhelming, or unreal creation hits me right where I live.
For example, Mary Poppins will tip me off the edge in the opening credits of the film. Yup, Mary Poppins. No, I'm not ashamed. Same with Sweeney Todd at the conductor's first downbeat in a theater. That's right, the musical about murder and cannibalism—I know what's coming, and it's all too perfect. I'll paraphrase Sparks and say we should all see more movies and watch more theater that makes us cry.
Communication is key
Even age can change the way stories ignite our brain's rewards center. Sparks says, “As we get older, we tend to cry more often for positive reasons, being soulfully touched by instances of altruism, magnificence, compassion, and empathy in society.” So true. A positive emotional release, regardless of it's cause or result, locks into our memory and establishes a moment of connection. The reward center lights up and the message sticks. And sticks around.
Bottom Line
Speaking from the stage should always include a level of emotional connection that targets the listener's “happy place”. Success, value, achievement, motivation, victory, recognition, respect, appreciation, reward. The more value in our story, the greater our talk's connective link to sense memory.
Information alone will never net a tear or release the chemical soup of overwhelming feeling in our audience we crave. You don't have to make them cry, but you and they will appreciate each moment when their reward center gets involved.
