YANSS Podcast 014 – Melanie C. Green and how stories can change beliefs and behaviors

Falcor the Luck Dragon from the Universal Pictures film, The Neverending Story

The Topic: Narratives

The Guest: Melanie C. Green

The Episode: DownloadiTunesStitcherRSSSoundcloud – Transcript

In this episode we discuss the power narratives have to affect our beliefs and behaviors with Melanie C. Green, a psychologist who studies the persuasive power of fiction.

According to Nielsen, the TV ratings company, the average person in the United States watches about 34 hours of television a week. That’s 73 days a year. Over the course of a lifetime, the average American can expect to spend a full decade lost in the trance spell that only powerful narratives can cast over the human mind.

What is the power of all the stories we consume through television? What about movies and books and comics and video games and everything else? How does it all affect our beliefs and behaviors?

Melanie C. GreenWe discuss all of that and more with Melanie C. Green who is a social psychologist who developed the transportation into a narrative worlds theory that helps explain total story immersion and how it translates into influence over our real-world behaviors. Green is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. You can find her on Twitter using the handle @NarrProf or her website.

After the interview, I discuss a news story about research into how photographs can either enhance or dampen your memory depending on how you use them.

In every episode, before I read a bit of self delusion news, I taste a cookie baked from a recipe sent in by a listener/reader. That listener/reader wins a signed copy of my new book, “You Are Now Less Dumb,” and I post the recipe on the YANSS Pinterest page. This episode’s winner is Elliot Jones who submitted a recipe for chocolate orange cherry cookies. Send your own recipes to david {at} youarenotsosmart.com.

Cookie 14

Links/Sources:

Boing Boing Podcasts

This Episode: Download – iTunes – Stitcher – RSS – Soundcloud – Transcript

Cookie Recipes

Melanie C. Green’s Website

Joseph Campbell on YouTube

Nielsen Stats for Television

Television Stats from California State

Article About Photos and Memory

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