Attention, memory and perception
Storytelling effect
Also called Narrative bias, Narrative transportation, Character identification
People remember and believe information told as a story better than the same facts in a list, especially when they identify with a character.
A story gives facts an order, a cause and someone to care about. People drawn into a story argue with it less and remember it longer, and they put themselves in the shoes of a character like them.
Use stories to explain why something matters: a customer's situation before and after, a case study with a real person in it. Keep the facts accurate; a story makes them stick, true or not.
In practice
A case study that follows one customer's week, from problem to fix, persuades more than a page of feature bullet points.
Common mistake
Narrative bias in the team: a vivid customer story can outweigh data that says it's unusual. Check how typical a story is before acting on it.
Where it comes from
Melanie Green and Timothy Brock described narrative transportation in 2000, and Jonathan Cohen how audiences identify with characters in 2001.