The social brain and the neuroscience of storytelling

In April 2023, my book chapter, The social brain and the neuroscience of storytelling, was published in the Springer Nature book Teaching Science students to communicate: A practical guide (Editors Susan Rowland and Louise Kuchel). You can read it here: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-91628-2_4

The abstract is as follows:

Why is storytelling so powerful? Why do we remember stories so easily? Research suggests that our brains are socially and emotionally hard-wired to absorb stories. Stories help us learn and remember because they generate emotion and empathy. We know that storytelling is a useful and persuasive tool. Now, advances in neuroscience are helping us understand why our brains react differently to stories than they do to non-storied sets of information. As we teach and learn to communicate science, it is important to find stories that make the content alive, emotive, and exciting.