Philosophers, writers, and scholars have long tried to identify the most basic, quintessential properties of stories. We know that the purpose of stories is to share events and ideas with one another, bringing them to life in the minds of the audience. While stories can be about virtually anything — with different characters, contexts, conflicts, and so on — the underlying social psychological processes that drive a story have never been directly observed using scientific tools. Until now, that is.
Using modern text analysis methods, we find that we can measure the social psychology that underpins how we tell stories. Moreover, we find that all different types of stories — novels, films, short stories, and even amateur writing — trend toward a universal narrative structure. On this website, you will find additional information on the social psychological processes that underpin all narratives. We also make available several examples to explore, information on our methods, and you can even analyze your
Below, you can see a few selected examples of how the narrative explorer works. Choose a story from the box below to visualize its narrative structure along the 3 primary narrative dimensions: Staging, Plot Progression, and Cognitive Tension.