Once upon a talk: on how and why we tell each other stories

Do people hang on your every word—or zone out halfway through? In this talk, based on early findings from an ongoing study, we explore the subtle signals that reveal when listeners are truly enjoying a story. Listener reactions like “mhm” or “wow!” offer a window into how stories are received—and not all storytellers spark the same responses. But what are the differences? Do skilled storytellers trigger more listener reactions, or maybe different ones? Come find out what your listeners might really be telling you—without saying much at all.

Storytelling is an important skill for young children to master, as it contributes to their early literacy and academic success on the one hand, and to their understanding of the social world and their socio-emotional wellbeing on the other. In my talk, I will briefly explain the early development of narrative skills in children from different linguistic backgrounds, as well as in children with language difficulties. At the end, I will highlight some ideas and strategies on how to support children's narrative development in their different languages in daily life, at home and at school.

Storytelling is widely held to play a role in the cultural transmission of knowledge (teaching) from one generation to the next. But little is known about how storytelling is actually used in teaching. I will describe an experiment where participants made baskets from various materials to carry as much rice as possible before teaching the next participant in line. I will examine the role of storytelling in sharing nonroutine, unexpected information in the teaching process, and its role in fostering innovation versus copying in cultural transmission.

This talk explores how emotional intelligence - the ability to perceive, understand, and manage emotions - affects storytelling. Using vignettes from a wordless book illustrating a sad story, participants created narratives. Do more emotionally intelligent individuals make more congruent descriptions of this negative event and imagine more positive conclusions?