The Brain and Communication

Excerpt from

“How Communication Works”

viralstorytelling.com

Any message or form of communication provides a stimulus, interpreted by the brain following either the high road or the low road.

The low road is linked to the emotional and archaic brain which dictates quick reactions based on heuristics – known reactions/interpretations to given problems that don't require reasoning.

The high road requires more time and attention and activates the most recent parts of the brain. The high road the preferred way of taking motivated decisions when there is no specific element of stress involved.

Since the roads are physical routes taken by the electrical information of our nervous system, there is no in-between; our brain rapidly elaborates which road a message is going to take, and then it's one or the other.

Reasoning may follow, in time, an initial emotional response – but not the other way round.

Evocative communication follows this principle: the message produces a stimulus for the emotional brain, calling for a reaction of the low road to apply a known heuristic.

Descriptive communication usually follows the evocative moment, when there is a chance to do so.

Storytelling is a common technique combining the evocative principle of a protagonist we identify with and a description of what gets in her way.