NARRATIVE BIAS

Narratives are meaning transmitters. They are history-preservation devices. They create and maintain cultures, and they forge identities that emerge out of the malleable, imperfect memories of life events. It makes sense, then, that every aspect of humanity concerned with meaning, with cause and effect, will lean heavily on narratives.

For all existence, there is an internal narrative upon which you cling, a story you construct minute by minute to assure yourself that you understand what is happening, and you prefer information framed in narrative. You have a tendency to make sense of the world by unconsciously constructing a story and then repeating that story when you need to explain your thoughts, feelings, actions, and everything else that needs an explanation when you stop and wonder who you are and how you came to be where you find yourself. Even now, sitting there, reading this, if put on the spot, you could weave a tale with a beginning, middle, and end. There would be cause and effect, a narrator, a protagonist, and so on. In addition, you have a proclivity for believing and accepting things more readily when they are delivered to you in story form. Raw data may be more accurate, but you’d rather simplify things and move on with your day than pore over charts and data visualizations. An emotional appeal gets into your head better than a statistical analysis