The Story of Stories traces the arc of storytelling across human history

The Story of Stories
Kevin Ashton
Harper, $32

Back in 1944, two psychologists performed a somewhat mundane experiment. The researchers asked people to simply watch a short film and describe it. Most of the viewers spun elaborate tales involving lovers, violence and abandonment. That’s pretty amazing, considering the film featured only shapes: two triangles and a circle that moved in and out of a rectangle.

Our brains, as it turns out, can find a story in anything.

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