Abstract
How Stories Change Us relates the developmental science of stories across cultures, and across the lifespan, in an accessible way for professionals, practitioners, scholars, and parents. Stories from fiction and real life have more in common than most people realize; neuroscience shows that remembering and imagining involve similar processes in the brain’s default network. Stories from books, TV and movies, and video games share similar benefits for promoting social understanding and prosocial behaviors. Real-life stories also foster physical health, mental health, and well-being. Regardless of media platform, fictional stories with violent and stereotyped content increase aggression and prejudiced attitudes and behaviors, and excessive consumption of fictional stories is unhealthy. In turn, real-life stories with inaccurate or biased content (fake news) increase memory errors; real-life stories with negative or traumatic content increase mental health difficulties. Likewise, imagined stories and imagined friendships can promote learning, creativity, and well-being, but at the extremes, imaginative processes can be linked to psychopathology. The gender differences observed in women’s and men’s fiction reading may be due in part to individual differences in mental imagery from practices dating back to early childhood. Yet reading fictional books and reminiscing about the past both play a special role in children’s and adolescents’ learning and development, so they should be fostered from a young age. At the end of life, encouraging older adults to tell their real-life stories can ease the transition to death. Stories may even help future generations to cope with global issues such as future pandemics and climate change.