Have you ever watched a film and felt your heart racing when the lead actor faces grave danger? Have you noticed your facial expressions softening when a novel’s hero suffers a terrible tragedy? This is empathy at work. It’s one of storytelling’s deepest powers.

In 2010, researcher Uri Hasson of Princeton University found that the brain activity in story-listeners not only mirrored but also anticipated the story-teller – a phenomenon called ‘neural coupling’. In other words, a well-told story is uniquely able to make a listener experience it as their own. Our brains are constantly searching for meaning, and we seem wired for empathy. It’s perhaps why we’re so drawn to stories in the first place.

Stories don’t simply entertain; they can also influence and control. Think of attention as a spotlight: every storyteller – from a novelist to a colleague recounting a meeting over coffee –is trying to hold and aim it. While there are countless ways to do that, all of them instinctively or deliberately tap into the same basic human drives. The famous six-word short story: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” – which is a masterclass in flash fiction – makes the case: it suggests a heartbreaking tragedy without ever stating it outright

Experiencing a story alters our neurochemical processes. The stress hormone cortisol sharpens our attention while oxytocin builds empathy for the characters. Researchers call this combination ‘transportation’, where we become so absorbed that the characters’ fate feels like our own. If the story has a happy ending, it triggers the limbic system (the brain’s reward center) to release dopamine, leaving us with the same optimism felt by the characters on the page or screen.

But this same chemistry has a dark side. A spike in cortisol can make us aggressive. And oxytocin, which is best known as the ‘bonding’ hormone, has been linked to fuellingcompetition, groupthink and bias, the kind seen in college fraternities or street gangs. It’s also no accident that fandoms have formed so readily around Harry Potter and Star Wars – stories can create groups, and they can divide people just as easily as bring them together.

This neurochemical charge is also why stories are remembered more accurately, and for far longer, than facts and figures alone. Stories connect information across multiple regions of the brain. They reach people who learn in different ways – visual, auditory, and kinesthetic – because a good story offers mental pictures, words, a voice, and emotional experience all at once.

So, whatever you’re trying to do — motivate, persuade, or simply be remembered — a story is where to start. It reaches the heart, by way of the brain.