The Importance of Stories in Driving Human Activity
Emotion matters in the structure of narratives, economic and otherwise, and it
reveals itself in stories. The historical novel and historical movie stand outside
of mainstream history, but they excel in helping us understand feelings in history
and appreciate some of the narratives that drive history. The historical novelist or
filmmaker, who constructs dialogue based on imagination and the intuition that
research has afforded, looks more like an inventor than a scholar.
In his 2013 presidential address before the American Historical Association,
historian William Cronon compared scholarly research in history with the
historical novel:
Historians choose not to represent aspects of the past about which our
documents are silent, but some of these—stream-of-consciousness and
informal conversation most obviously—are so fundamental to so much of life
that it is a little hard to say which depiction of the past is more distorting: a
history that says nothing about them, or a fiction that in the absence of
authoritative evidence tries to represent them as responsibly as possible.12
There is thus a basic question about the primary metaphor that we use to
understand an economic crisis. Dominating the discussion in popular media is
the “economy-as-sick-or-healthy-person” metaphor. The economy is described
as healthy at some times, as sick at others, as if it needs a doctor who will
administer the right kind of medicine (fiscal or monetary policy). In keeping
with the sickness/health metaphor, the popular media often report on a
thermometer called “confidence,” measured by confidence indexes or the stock
market.
The significance of human-interest stories brings to mind the work of
psychologist Robert Sternberg. In his book Love Is a Story (1998), he describes
healthy, loving relationships between two individuals as made possible by a
narrative of their relationship. As in loving relationships, the progress of an
economy is not one-dimensional. Rather, the story of the economy has
dimensions beyond the public’s perception of its health. The story has moral
dimensions as well, involving attitudes of loyalty versus opportunism, of trust
versus distrust, of cutting to the head of the line versus waiting politely. In
addition, the story has dimensions of affect, of security versus insecurity, of

inner direction versus public direction. The array of stories circulating at any
point of time conveys all of these dimensions.

Flashbulb Memory
In addition to having a story-like structure, our memories tend to focus on a few
salient, random images. Certain poignant narratives produce such strong
emotional reactions that people remember them years later. The narrative may
have been transmitted to them only briefly and succinctly, among many other
communications that are quickly forgotten. Why can such brief exposures to a
narrative cause changes in economic behavior long afterward?
When asked to describe their confidence or current motivations, people can
sometimes remember and talk about a sudden change in their mental stance,
suggesting a discrete and identifiable causal stimulus. In the extreme form, the
establishment of a long-term memory may be so sudden as to be considered a
flashbulb memory.13 The experience of a flashbulb memory is similar to the
effect of an underexposed movie, filmed in darkness, illuminated for only an
instant when a camera flashbulb went off. That flashbulb image may tell quite a
story, suggesting an event with a reason, with surroundings and ambience. With
many of our memories, we remember points in time, and we have some idea of
context, but we cannot move away from the focused, flashbulb memory.
Psychologists have studied how the brain chooses which memories to give
flashbulb status, analogous to choosing which photos to put in a family album. It
turns out that flashbulb memories are connected not only to the emotions
attached to the remembered event but also to social psychological factors.
Memories that involve a shared identity with others, or that are rehearsed with
others, are more likely to achieve flashbulb status.14 Thus flashbulb memories
are selected in a way that gives them a better chance to be involved in the
formation of contagious narratives.
For example, the narrative describing the first shots of the US Civil War near
Fort Sumter in 1861 was vividly remembered decades later. Thirty-five years
after the event, a former US first sergeant described in great detail just what he
was doing when, for the first time in his life, he was told he must lead his men
on a mission that might get them killed:
I was on duty as first sergeant of a company of 100 recruits, well instructed as
infantry, on Governor’s Island in the New York harbor. We had just about got
through with our holiday celebrations, which in antebellum days, were made