3.4. Recap and Limits of How Story Works in Human Decision Making

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Publication year: 2021

3.4. RECAP AND LIMITS OF HOW STORY WORKS IN HUMAN DECISION MAKING

This chapter took up persuasion in civic discourse, starting with Aristotle. Contrasting with the technique-based Sophists, he focused on tying forensic argument to what the audience values.⁵⁶ His famous ethos, pathos, and logos are not abstract concepts; rather, they represent the ways of connecting with the audience through gaining trust, addressing emotional needs, and reasoning in terms the audience accepts as proving matters of the kind at issue.⁵⁷

Jumping millennia, this chapter also outlined fifty years' replicable psychology research into how people make decisions. Confirming Aristotle, science shows people have two thought systems. One is intuitive, automatic, and fast. The other is conscious, effortful, and slow. Both are essential to every human's navigation of the world. But the fast, intuitive System 1...