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The Stories of Your Life by Ben Ambridge

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The Stories of Your Life

The Eight Masterplots That Explain Human Behaviour

by Ben Ambridge

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Narrator Ben Ambridge

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Length 8 hours 17 minutes

Language English

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Summary
About the author
About the narrator

Our capacity to tell stories is one of the ways in which our species is unique, but most of us don't appreciate their true power. The Story of Your Life will uncover scientific findings from the fields of linguistics, psychology and neuroscience which demonstrate that we are hardwired to understand the world in terms not of facts and figures, but of narratives.

Consequently, as demonstrated by the rise of populism around the world, global history is written not by those who are the smartest, or who have the deepest command of the issues, but by those who tell the most compelling stories. And whether you're applying for a job or promotion, fighting for a political cause, buying or selling something, or simply trying to find your way through the world, the best way to do so is to understand the issue at hand in terms of one of the familiar and memorable narrative structures that have framed human thinking for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Because these stories have been instilled into us from birth, they resonate with us, even if we don't understand why. But, for this very reason, we must also be on our guard. Stories have a dark side, in the compelling but false narratives that are continually spun at as by politicians, preachers and pedlars; and it is only by truly understanding these narratives and the power that they have over us that we can begin to counter them.

Nonfiction Social Science

Ben Ambridge is Professor of Psycholinguistics at the University of Manchester and the ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD). His first two books, Psy-Q: You Know Your IQ - Now Test Your Psychological Intelligence and Are You Smarter Than a Chimpanzee have sold over 100,000 copies across sixteen language editions. These books led to regular columns in The Observer and The Big Issue, appearances on Channel 4's Sunday Brunch, BBC Radio 2's Chris Evans Breakfast Show, the BBC's Tiny Happy People website, talks at Google, The Royal Institution, Oxford Literary Festival, Wilderness Festival and Bestival, and a TEDx talk, 'Nine Myths About Psychology', that has had over 3 million views.

Ben's day job as a prolific researcher of experimental psycholinguistics keeps him up to date with findings from the psychology, linguistics and neuroscience literature; knowledge that will prove extremely valuable when undertaking a writing project at the intersection of these disciplines.