Narrative

Arguments tell people what to think. Stories let them feel why it matters, and people remember stories long after they forget statistics. A campaign narrative has a character, a challenge, a choice and an outcome, and invites the audience to see themselves in it.

Do this

1. Use the three-part public narrative. Marshall Ganz's structure (Ganz, 2011): - Story of self: why you, personally, care. One specific moment, not your CV. - Story of us: what the audience shares with you: a place, an experience, a value. - Story of now: the urgent choice in front of us, and the action that makes the difference.
2. Start with one person. One named or clearly described person with a specific problem does more than a statistic about thousands. Then use the number to show they aren't alone.
3. Show a choice. Stories move when the character has to decide something. Put the decision point in.
4. End with the reader. The last character in the story should be the reader, and the last line should be what they do.
5. Use real stories with permission. Change names only with a note that you have done so. Never composite several people into one without saying so.

What the research says

Absorbed readers argue back less. Green & Brock (2000) found that people who were "transported" into a story changed their beliefs more in line with it and found fewer faults in it. See Narrative transportation. That's why stories persuade, and why they need to be true.

Narratives change beliefs and intentions. A meta-analysis by Braddock & Dillard (2016) found narratives had a small but reliable persuasive effect on beliefs, attitudes, intentions and behaviours.

One person moves us more than many. Small, Loewenstein & Slovic (2007) found people gave more to help an identifiable individual than to statistical victims, and that adding statistics to the individual story reduced giving. See Identifiable victim effect. Lead with the person; bring in the scale briefly and after.

Worked examples: real speeches

• Nelson Mandela, Rivonia trial, South Africa, 1964. His statement from the dock told the story of the ANC's turn from non-violence and ended with his own stake: "It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." Self, us and now in one speech.
• Winston Churchill, UK House of Commons, 18 June 1940. "Their finest hour" cast the British public as characters in a story that future generations would judge, and asked them to act so that it would be told well.
• Ronald Reagan, "Prouder, Stronger, Better", US, 1984. The re-election ad known as "Morning in America" showed ordinary people going to work, marrying and raising flags, and asked why anyone would want to return to four years earlier. Story of now as a choice between two chapters.
• Barack Obama, Democratic National Convention keynote, US, 2004. Opened with his own family history ("a skinny kid with a funny name") and widened it into a story of a shared American "us".

Each speaker came from a different political tradition. The structure is the same.

Worked example: you applying it

Invented case: Riverton's Measure 12, a half-cent sales tax for buses every ten minutes.

For, as a 60-second speech opening:

Self: Last winter I missed my daughter's school concert because the Route 4 bus came forty minutes late and I don't drive. Us: A lot of us in the north wards know that feeling: the evenings lost to waiting or driving. Now: On the 3rd of November we can change it. Measure 12 puts a bus on six routes every ten minutes. Vote yes, and next winter nobody misses the concert.

Against, as a 60-second speech opening:

Self: My parents opened this hardware shop in 1988, and I've watched half of Main Street close since the mall opened over the county line. Us: Every owner on this street knows how close the margins are. Now: Measure 12 would make our prices higher than the shops two miles away. Vote no, and let's ask the council to fund the buses from the county grant instead.

Both are invented. In a real piece, every detail (the late bus, the shop's history) must be true.

Where it crosses the line

• An invented or composite victim presented as a real person is fabrication.
• A narrator performing an identity they don't have ("as a nurse…") is Plain folks used as a costume.
• A single story presented as proof of a trend, when the data say otherwise, is Card stacking.
• Stories built to cast a whole group as the villain are Scapegoating.

Go deeper

• Narrative transportation, Identifiable victim effect, Emotional contagion
• Next chapter: Emotional appeal

Sources

• Ganz, M. (2011). Public narrative, collective action, and power. In S. Odugbemi & T. Lee (eds.), Accountability Through Public Opinion: From Inertia to Public Action (pp. 273–289). World Bank.
• Green, M. C. & Brock, T. C. (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5), 701–721.
• Braddock, K. & Dillard, J. P. (2016). Meta-analytic evidence for the persuasive effect of narratives on beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. Communication Monographs, 83(4), 446–467.
• Small, D. A., Loewenstein, G. & Slovic, P. (2007). Sympathy and callousness: The impact of deliberative thought on donations to identifiable and statistical victims. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 102(2), 143–153.
• Mandela, N. (1964). Statement from the dock, Rivonia trial, 20 April 1964.
• Churchill, W. (1940). "Their finest hour", House of Commons, 18 June 1940. Hansard, vol. 362.
• Tuesday Team for Reagan-Bush '84 (1984). "Prouder, Stronger, Better" television advertisement.
• Obama, B. (2004). Keynote address, Democratic National Convention, Boston, 27 July 2004.