The Brain and Communication
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Communication triggers responses in the brain via two pathways: the low road, which elicits quick, emotional reactions based on heuristics, and the high road, which involves more deliberate reasoning and decision-making. The document notes that emotional responses typically precede reasoning and that storytelling effectively combines evocative communication with descriptive elements. This understanding of brain pathways is crucial for creating impactful messages that engage audiences.
The Brain and Communication
- 1. The Brain and Communication Excerpt from “How Communication Works” viralstorytelling.com
- 2. Any message or form of communication provides a stimulus, interpreted by the brain following either the high road or the low road.
- 3. The low road is linked to the emotional and archaic brain which dictates quick reactions based on heuristics – known reactions/interpretations to given problems that don't require reasoning.
- 4. The high road requires more time and attention and activates the most recent parts of the brain. The high road the preferred way of taking motivated decisions when there is no specific element of stress involved.
- 5. Since the roads are physical routes taken by the electrical information of our nervous system, there is no in-between; our brain rapidly elaborates which road a message is going to take, and then it's one or the other.
- 6. Reasoning may follow, in time, an initial emotional response – but not the other way round.
- 7. Evocative communication follows this principle: the message produces a stimulus for the emotional brain, calling for a reaction of the low road to apply a known heuristic.
- 8. Descriptive communication usually follows the evocative moment, when there is a chance to do so.
- 9. Storytelling is a common technique combining the evocative principle of a protagonist we identify with and a description of what gets in her way.