Richard Milligan describes Princeton research showing that storytelling triggers dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin release in listeners' brains. These neurochemicals create openness and trust, which is why Larry King used storytelling to connect with guests. The finding suggests stories are a strategic tool for recruiting and selling teams to new members.
Princeton has an institute for storytelling. And these institutes, what they're doing is they're putting humans on brain scans. They are then having them tell stories and having them listen to stories. And they're seeing how does the brain act around the story being told. And one of the things that's now science is that when you get someone to tell their story, they like you more because the brain goes to a place, a special place where it actually emits dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin when it tells a story. Larry King didn't even know this when Larry King was doing this, but when he forced people to tell their stories, okay, it made them more open. It made them more available because of those chemicals. Those chemicals are tied to bonding. They're tied to trust. They're tied to empathy. All of those things are things that we need when recruiting people to accelerate and condense the cycle of selling someone our organization, our team.
