We often dismiss stories, saying "anecdotes aren't data," but data enriched with anecdotes can be far more effective than just data in changing minds and getting people to pay attention. In this Spark session Amy Jensen Mowl & Vaishnavi Prathap highlight a few examples where just adding some narrative elements to data can have a big impact in overall communication.

1. Storytelling & Evidence
Amy & Vaishnavi
IFMR Finance Foundation
Spark Series | Autumn 2014

2. Outline
Stories for Cognition
Stories for Communication
Stories as evidence, stories for insight
!

3. STORIES FOR COGNITION

4. Why characteristics make us strive for
new knowledge?
1. Surprise
2. Incongruity (contradiction!)
3. Importance
4. Salience
5. Epiphany
Sounds like a great story

6. Cognition
• Stories help to engage us, and understand
• Stories help us remember & organize our thoughts
– “Memory palace:” recalling items by assigning them a space
you’ve created in your mind

8. STORIES FOR
COMMUNICATION

9. Communication
• “Experts” vs. Folks
• Researchers, practitioners, specialists often struggle to explain their
work to non-specialists
– Often, scientific evidence & ideas have to compete with non-scientific" fantasia”
– That’s why we hear “the science is boring”
• Effective communication of complex ideas isn’t a new problem
– It isn’t easy
– It can even be deadly

10. vs.

11. “Science like the rest of culture is based on the manufacture of
narrative. We all live by narrative.”
--E.O. Wilson

12. Recent evidence on Barriers to
Banking

13. Or let us tell you a story…
In Chennai, at a branch of one of India’s largest commercial banks, a
large banner prominently announcing the bank’s host of savings
products—including the “Basic Savings Deposit Account” (BSBDA)—
stands over the bank’s entrance.
A man enters the bank to inquire about opening a new account, and
speaks with the manager…….

14. “Know the big data, which is the “the God shot” of reality that
official statistics represent. But be ready for reality on the
ground, too. Small stories can have big power. They can move
donors, inform NGOs, and clue in lawmakers.”
– Katherine Boo, author, “Behind the Beautiful Forevers”

15. STORIES AS EVIDENCE

16. Evidence and insight
Beyond cognition and communication….stories play an
important role in R&D
• Stories are a research tool in themselves
– A story is a form of data, set of facts
– Can used to refute existing models, or suggest new ones

17. Evidence and insight
“Research stories:” 2 desirable properties
• Anomalous, or atypical: “Man bites dog”
– not easily explained by existing theories
• Immutable: “God is in every leaf of every tree”
– Need not be representative
– But it must be specific—the details can’t change with retelling

18. Evidence and insight
• Big Data has its boundaries
• Danger of big data—way we collect
data, encode data, reflects our beliefs
and assumptions…
• Breakthrough, insight, only happens
when we upend our beliefs and
assumptions
• Can’t crunch to insight

19. Evidence and insight
• Frontier of research, management, practice, and science
is in the “rough edges:” answers to questions we don’t
know how to ask
• To get closer to the right questions
– Look to the details & descriptions in stories and
narrative
– Take stories seriously

20. Sparked your interest?
Stories for Cognition
The Science of storytelling (book review)
How long to get to tatooine (New Yorker article)***
Curiosity, information gaps, and the utility of knowledge (Research article)
The Art of memory (book review)
Stories for Communication
Tell me a story (podcast—Caltech commencement address)***
Storytelling that moves people (HBR article)
Stories as Evidence, Stories for Insight
When do stories work? Evidence and illustration in the social sciences (Research article)***
Ultimate limitation of big data for development (Scidev blog)
Seeing what others don’t: data vs insights (Psychology article)***
Drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us (10min animation)
Where good ideas come from (2 min animation)

21. Thank you