Brain wave study reveals why one type of story can connect people

A study published in the journal eNeuro on November 8 dives into how stories with different emotional overtones are processed in the brains of storytellers and listeners.

The speaker had to watch a video story and relay it to the listeners.

Then the listeners were asked to recall what happened.

The researchers measured the participants’ brain waves with an EEG as they listened to stories with consistently sad, happy, or neutral emotions.

Participants also had to rank how closely connected they felt to the storyteller once they heard a story.

And the EEGs showed that stories caused similar brain activity in the listeners and speaker, especially when the listeners said they felt more connected.

Other studies have recorded this phenomenon of physiological synching — even our heart rates will fluctuate at the same points in a story.

However, the researchers note that stories usually have more variables to them in the real world, such as social context and vividness of the tale.