Stories are an integral part of human society. Our ancestors used to tell each other stories around campfires. Stories are the first things 2- or 3-year-olds mumble to themselves, perhaps to make sense of the world around them. Parents tell their children fairy tales to teach them about the world, history, and morals. With stories, we comprehend bigger concepts by making logical sense of them.
When scientists share their findings with other scientists or non-scientists, they automatically become storytellers. Although most scientists know this to be true, they struggle with it.
Storytelling is an incredibly effective approach to communicating science, since we understand facts and concepts better when they are connected as stories. Research has actually shown that chances are higher that people remember scientific concepts when presented as stories.
As a scientist-turned-science writer and editor, I’ve seen multiple situations in which stories made science communication projects better and more effective. In this post, you will learn why stories are needed to create engaging and persuasive science communication content. I will then dive deep into one pillar of effective storytelling: emotions.
Why stories are important for science communication
Our brains are fascinating organs. They help us calculate prices in the supermarket, orient ourselves, and empathize with other people. For each of these processes, we need one superpower of the brain: the ability to make logical connections between cause and effect.
Since the brain is locked up inside our bodies without direct contact with the outside world, it relies on our senses for information about our surroundings. The brain gains information on events based on hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and feeling, as well as energy levels and emotions.
It then connects the information into logical and comprehensive stories: something happened, which caused us to feel a certain way, aka the effect. Our brains tell us these stories in every situation to help us make sense of the world and what is happening around us.
For scientists and science communicators, logical and engaging stories can help an audience grasp science and make better life decisions. Every piece of scientific communication works with a story: from the title of a publication, grant application, or article, its summary or main text, to social media posts, talks at conferences, pitches to editors, and chats outside the laboratory. A logical and comprehensive story will also help neighbors, friends, or family connect with scientific topics. And with this, science will make a true impact.
Trigger emotions with your science story
As mentioned above, one crucial part of each story is how it makes the audience feel. That is why triggering the right emotions is important for the success of your science communication project. To ensure your audience makes the best use of their new knowledge based on their emotional response, we want to focus on the so-called epistemic emotions: curiosity, confusion, wonder, and awe. Our brains create this class of emotions when the sensory input or logical gap relates to information and understanding. Triggering your audience’s epistemic emotions is incredibly useful in science communication, as they will help them learn and remember your scientific content.
Make your audience curious about science
As a researcher, scientist, or journalist, you probably know this emotion all too well. Curiosity is the internal drive to understand something just for the sake of knowing. You might not have any real reason—the topic simply fascinates you, and you want to learn more.
Interestingly, curiosity stems from knowledge gaps. We typically already know something about a topic, while also realizing that we do not fully grasp it yet or are missing key pieces of the puzzle. These knowledge gaps can create some kind of discomfort that our brains yearn to resolve. The only way to ease it is by acquiring new information and learning.
As we learn something new about a topic, we often discover more knowledge gaps, which then spark more curiosity. This curiosity even spreads when we share our discoveries with others, making them curious about the shared topic. As such, scientific knowledge can spread when shared with an interested audience, helping more people learn about science and improve their lives.
In science communication, give your audience background information on a topic to trigger curiosity and make them aware of knowledge gaps.
Play with confusion in science communication
You might be wondering how to use emotions in your science communication projects. This thought may be accompanied by a distracting feeling of confusion—the emotion we experience when new information does not quite fit our existing understanding.
Interestingly, this uncomfortable emotion is like a muscle burn during a workout—it’s a signal that the muscle is growing stronger. In the same way, the brain experiences some discomfort when learning something new.
The key is finding the right level of confusion. Too much can be demotivating or frustrating, while too little might leave us bored and without motivation to resolve the tension.
Imagine a young child solving a puzzle: if the puzzle only contains a small number of pieces to assemble and is too easy to solve, the child gets bored. If the puzzle has too many puzzle pieces or contains shapes that are too difficult to assemble, the child likely becomes overwhelmed and loses interest.
In science communication, aim to create the right amount of confusion. This will encourage your audience to pause and reflect on what they’ve heard or read. It will also help them engage with the new information and bridge their knowledge gaps.
Spark wonder in your audience
The emotion of wonder feels a bit different for each person. Maybe wonder triggers a sweet feeling of surprise in you, such as when something rare or unexpected happens. Or the emotion motivates you to seek deeper understanding.
Wonder is also closely linked to curiosity and fuels our passion for exploration, learning and the pursuit of understanding and adventure. Conceptual breakthroughs based on scientific knowledge can help us experience wonder and become passionate or interested in a new topic.
In science communication, aim to inspire your audience’s wonder. This will spark their desire to understand and encourage them to explore new ideas and topics.
Help your audience be in awe of your science
Awe is the grand finale of understanding and learning—it’s that satisfying and inspiring feeling we get when we close a knowledge gap while grasping the vastness of the question. This emotion may leave us overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude or phenomenal nature of the topic. This can lead us to change how we see the world around us, triggering new ways of thinking and living.
Imagine sitting down with your complete collection of experimental data or research notes. Suddenly, everything “clicks”—your data make perfect sense, leading you to develop a model or story that explains the question you tried to solve.
Even in this moment of clarity, you are aware of more knowledge gaps that open up upon your discovery. This sparks new curiosity, motivating you to keep investigating and fueling your research or science communication journey.
Aim to create moments of awe for your audience in your science communication project. Help them learn and care about a new topic.
Share your research with an engaging science story
Stories are essential pillars of communication, learning, and understanding. You can create meaningful connections with your audience by using storytelling techniques and triggering emotional responses.
The storytelling approach can also help you as a scientist or science communicator in your work: By trying to create a logical and comprehensive story from research or experimental data, you can identify your knowledge gaps, triggering more curiosity to produce a publishable narrative. Spreading wonder and awe about your discoveries further helps distribute scientific knowledge, improving scientific literacy in society.
Similarly, emotions help your audience comprehend and remember scientific concepts, inspiring them to explore further and make positive changes. This will improve not only their own lives but also advance society as a whole. So, next time you want to share scientific knowledge, engage your audience emotionally to help them learn and understand the world around them.
About Sarah Wettstadt
Dr. Sarah Wettstadt is a microbiologist-turned science writer and communicator writing for professional associations, life science organizations, and researchers from the biological sciences. She runs the blog BacterialWorld to share the diverse and colorful activities of microbes and bacteria, based on which she co-published the coloring book “Coloured Bacteria from A to Z“. As science communication manager for the Scientific Panel on Responsible Plant Nutrition and blog post commissioner for the FEMSmicroBlog, Sarah writes about microbiology and environmental topics for various audiences. To help scientists improve their science communication skills, she co-founded SciComm Society, through which she offers guides, webinars and 1-on-1 coaching. Prior to her science communication career, Sarah completed a PhD at Imperial College London, UK, and a postdoc at the CSIC in Granada, Spain. In her non-SciComm time, she enjoys playing beach volleyball on the sunny beaches in Spain or travelling the world.
