The Superpower of Storytelling
The doctor left the hospital tired but elated, holding her newborn baby in her arms. Love filled every fiber of her being, and she thought of the sunny years ahead. When would the baby walk? What would her first word be? Would she make friends easily? Study public health like her mother had?
The doctor’s questions changed quickly as the exhaustion from giving birth gave way to new concerns. She visited her medical providers repeatedly, tracking her increasing blood pressure and weight, the headaches and other symptoms. They told her it was normal. Be patient. You just had a baby.
She wanted to be with her baby, not in medical offices pleading for someone to listen. Her blood pressure was dangerously high now. It had been three weeks since the birth of her daughter. Three weeks of insisting something was wrong.
She wouldn’t get even one more day. Cardiac arrest ended her life six hours after the medical experts again sent her home. Now her daughter is growing up without her mother.
This is the true story of Dr. Shalon Irving, a Black woman and an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who dedicated her work to uncovering hidden gaps in public health. She was well aware of the health disparities among racial and ethnic groups in the United States—and the staggeringly high rate of maternal mortality among Black women.
She spoke clearly and persistently to medical experts about what she was experiencing, and she still didn’t get the care she needed. Dr. Irving passed away in 2017 from preventable pregnancy-related causes.
I learned Dr. Irving’s story a few years ago, and I remember it clearly to this day. But I don’t remember the maternal mortality rate for Black women. Why is that?
Stories capture our imagination and tug at our emotions, helping us retain information far better than a report full of numbers and jargon.
More than 80% of maternal deaths in the United States are preventable. This is a stunning statistic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black women are over three times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related causes. In 2023, Black women had a maternal mortality rate of 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births. White women had a rate of 14.5 deaths.
If you’re like me, you’ll forget these numbers before the end of the day, but you’ll remember the story.
“The average impact of stories on beliefs fades by 33% over the course of a day, but by 73% for statistics,” report Thomas Graeber, Christopher Roth, and Florian Zimmermann in a working paper for Harvard Business School.
Stories can characterize what the statistics say by bringing in details that help us relate. It’s these details that make stories memorable.
Here’s how it works: “The motor and sensory cortices, as well as the frontal cortex are all engaged during story creation and processing. These networks are nurtured and solidified by feelings of anticipation of the story’s resolution, involving the input of your brain’s form of candy, dopamine. That’s why when we experience an emotionally charged event or hear a story of the same nature, certain parts of our brain release excess dopamine, making it easier to remember something with greater accuracy,” the NeuroLeadership Institute reports.
Harnessing the power of storytelling can make your research memorable.
Mission-driven organizations whose work revolves around research and data produce reports centered around research and data. Their staff are comfortable speaking in the technical language of research and data. Storytelling is oftentimes outside their comfort zone.
But it’s worth getting comfortable with stories as a vehicle to engage your audience, build a stronger following, drive donations, and gain media attention.
Increase attention to your mission and work through storytelling.
As the evidence shows, wrap a story around key research findings and your audience may remember it for years to come.
They’ll remember you, too, as the storyteller who makes research findings relatable and can be counted on to explain why it matters.
