brian zikmund fisher 01 reedit — Transcript

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1. 0:00lots of information comes in the form of
2. 0:03individual stories right we see stories
3. 0:06in the news medium
4. 0:08we see stories in social media we hear
5. 0:11stories from our friends
6. 0:13and from our family members when we hear
7. 0:16all of these different kinds of stories
8. 0:18here's a question for you should we
9. 0:20believe them
10. 0:21so think about this stories are
11. 0:24powerful we relate to the people
12. 0:28to the characters and stories and to
13. 0:30their situations
14. 0:32we learn by watching someone
15. 0:35face a problem and then either solve it
16. 0:38or face the consequences of their
17. 0:41actions
18. 0:41in the context of that story stories are
19. 0:45a really effective way
20. 0:47to pass down information from one person
21. 0:49to another
22. 0:50in fact most faith traditions around the
23. 0:53globe
24. 0:54have used storytelling as key part
25. 0:57of their teachings a key part of passing
26. 1:00down information
27. 1:01from one generation to another
28. 1:04why well good stories they transport us
29. 1:08they carry us into other people's lived
30. 1:10experiences
31. 1:11and that can be a great way to learn
32. 1:14about
33. 1:14someone else's situation or someone
34. 1:17else's perspective
35. 1:19however and this is a big however
36. 1:24stories are really really persuasive
37. 1:28our brains are actually structured to
38. 1:30absorb
39. 1:31stories and to be influenced by them
40. 1:34as a result stories can bias us they can
41. 1:38distort our perceptions of the world
42. 1:41and that can happen even without our
43. 1:43knowing
44. 1:44that we are being manipulated or shaped
45. 1:46by those stories
46. 1:48so what do we do about that well here
47. 1:51are a couple pieces of advice first
48. 1:54when you hear a story think really
49. 1:57really
50. 1:58hard about the person or group
51. 2:01the character of the story
52. 2:04whoever it is who's at the heart of that
53. 2:07narrative that you're hearing about
54. 2:09and ask yourself this question are they
55. 2:11really an average person
56. 2:13are they like you or are they unusual
57. 2:17in some way their background
58. 2:20their experience their situation
59. 2:22whatever it is
60. 2:24why do i ask that well average people's
61. 2:27stories
62. 2:29don't actually get shared very much they
63. 2:30don't get told
64. 2:32if it's average then most people
65. 2:35actually
66. 2:35already know what the average experience
67. 2:38is
68. 2:39so there's no reason to share those
69. 2:40kinds of stories
70. 2:42whose stories get shared it's the
71. 2:44unusual ones
72. 2:45the rare things the things that don't
73. 2:47usually happen that's the stories that
74. 2:49we actually hear
75. 2:50in the news media in social media etc
76. 2:54right we hear the story of the one in a
77. 2:57million patient who
78. 2:58miraculously gets cured of their cancer
79. 3:00completely
80. 3:02or we hear the story of the one in a
81. 3:05million person who had a
82. 3:06say a bad reaction to a vaccine
83. 3:10now these stories may be true
84. 3:13in the sense that they literally
85. 3:15occurred but they're not what we would
86. 3:17call representative
87. 3:19and what i mean by that is most cancer
88. 3:22patients
89. 3:23are not miraculously cured without
90. 3:26medical intervention they don't
91. 3:27spontaneously get better
92. 3:30most people who get vaccines have
93. 3:33absolutely
94. 3:34nothing happened to them right that is
95. 3:36the normal story of a vaccine
96. 3:39nothing happens and so when we
97. 3:42have a story in which someone says that
98. 3:44something happened
99. 3:45after they had a vaccine that's unusual
100. 3:48and that's why it gets shared
101. 3:51as a result we should never believe
102. 3:55that whatever unusual happened to
103. 3:58somebody
104. 3:59in the story is necessarily going to
105. 4:02happen to us
106. 4:03right it might but odds are it probably
107. 4:07won't
108. 4:09and we have to remember that to be a
109. 4:11good consumer of stories now
110. 4:14second we should always be very
111. 4:17skeptical
112. 4:18about people's explanations for why
113. 4:22something happened to them or something
114. 4:24didn't happen to them
115. 4:26just because the person was there and
116. 4:29they actually experienced something
117. 4:31does not mean that they are an expert in
118. 4:34why that happened
119. 4:35so here's a classic example from public
120. 4:38health
121. 4:39a parent of a child who developed
122. 4:43autism shortly after having their
123. 4:46regular childhood vaccinations does in
124. 4:49fact have a child with autism right
125. 4:51that's
126. 4:51true but if they claim that the vaccine
127. 4:55that their child got
128. 4:57caused the child's autism well
129. 5:00they're wrong we have the scientific
130. 5:02evidence to show
131. 5:04that just because you get a vaccine does
132. 5:07not make you
133. 5:07more likely to develop autism it might
134. 5:11happen at the same time but it's not
135. 5:12causal
136. 5:14at the same time i can empathize with
137. 5:17that parent
138. 5:18because they're dealing with their child
139. 5:22and their child's condition even as i
140. 5:25know
141. 5:26that it's the not the vaccine that
142. 5:28caused their child to have that
143. 5:29condition
144. 5:31so that's my advice we got three key
145. 5:34points here
146. 5:34one anytime you hear a story know
147. 5:38that it can be powerful and persuasive
148. 5:40so pay attention
149. 5:42two pay close attention to the character
150. 5:45to the people in the story
151. 5:47are they unusual what
152. 5:51makes them extreme or unusual enough
153. 5:54that their story is being shared
154. 5:56and whatever that is remember that it
155. 5:59probably cannot be expected to happen
156. 6:01to anybody else including you
157. 6:04and third always question
158. 6:07whether or not people's explanations or
159. 6:10their beliefs about why something
160. 6:12happened
161. 6:13is actually true because they're not an
162. 6:15expert
163. 6:16usually in why something happened
164. 6:19following these kinds of steps
165. 6:21can make you a better consumer of the
166. 6:23stories that you see
167. 6:25in the media social media and just in
168. 6:28your day-to-day interactions