In Germany, where emotions are frowned upon in politics and Chancellor Olaf Scholz is said to have the charisma of a closet, we may shake our heads at Donald Trump. About his dance routines, his absurd claims about Kamala Harris’ guilt for stock market collapses (“Kamala Crash”) and his accusations against migrants and allies. But despite polarizing content, the former and most likely future US president knows how to convince his target group through storytelling. “He conveys his messages in such a way that they appeal to the basic human instincts and anchor themselves directly in the VIP lounge of the brain,” says the best-selling author and well-known storytelling expert Prof. Veit Etzold.
- Storytelling is humanity’s oldest cultural technique
- Report facts, sell stories
- Due to evolution, threat stories have a stronger emotional impact
- Few people have mastered this technique as well as Trump
Storytelling is not a coincidence
Every good story follows a structure that is deeply embedded in our survival instinct. It is based on four central elements: a situation, a threat or crisis, a turning point and a happy ending. These story building blocks are by no means chosen at random – they are the basic elements of human survival and have proven themselves over thousands of years. “Report facts, but sell stories,” says Veit Etzold, who studies the perception of stories in the human brain not only as a thriller author but also as a professor of neuromarketing. “We look at reality and turn it into a story. And if that story sounds believable, then it will be believed. Believable sound that’s enough. The story doesn’t have to be true,” says storytelling expert Etzold.
Donald Trump already used this tactic in the 2016 election campaign. The threat he described was the Mexican immigrants, whom he wanted to combat by building a wall. His slogan, “Make America Great Again,” clearly conveyed his vision. And why was he the right person to build the wall, as opposed to Hilary Clinton? Because he’s a building contractor!
Trumps Storytelling-Schema: Bedrohung, Held, Happy End
Even if Trump seems impulsive, most of his stories are clearly planned. Trump’s approach always follows a clear pattern: in the first phase, the description of the situation, he paints a picture of an America that is suffering at the hands of the Democrats. Economic weakness, social discontent and the threat from external enemies such as China and numerous trouble spots in which America is struggling are integral parts of his narrative. This presentation meets the security needs and economic concerns of its target group.
In the second step he brings disaster into play. There he paints a bleak vision of America under Democratic leadership, a scenario of economic decline and political chaos where one bad event begets the next even worse event. Unregulated migration leads to increasing unemployment, social unrest and ultimately to the loss of American supremacy. Regardless of whether this is true or not, Trump claims it and remains consistent with his story.
Then comes the twist in Trump’s story. He presents himself as the one who can get America back in the right direction. He provides insights into the “successes” of his presidency, when inflation was lower, the job market was booming and the country acted as a strong negotiating partner in foreign policy and was not the paymaster of NATO.
Ultimately, Trump draws a happy ending in which America prospers again under his leadership. The solution, according to Trump’s narrative, is his re-election. Here one supposedly positive event causes the next. America uses its oil reserves, which creates jobs, the US car companies sell cars with combustion engines and no one is dependent on China. Then there will be less inflation, more jobs in America. Trump shows himself to be a doer who tells US citizens where to go, but leaves them alone with “little things” like minorities, climate change and gender issues. The story concludes with the promise of a better future with the slogan “Make America Great Again.” Ronald Reagan had already used the slogan in 1980, but no one noticed that either.
“If everyone does and offers the same thing, the story becomes an unfair competitive advantage. Few people have mastered the technique of storytelling better than Donald Trump,” says Veit Etzold, best-selling author and Germany’s best-known storytelling expert.
A good story gets past our brain’s bouncer
The scientific basis of this effect is this: the human psyche reacts strongly to narrative structures. “There is a system in our brain that processes information and one that first evaluates this information. Information that is conveyed via a memorable story has a greater chance of penetrating our consciousness. A story almost always arrives at the bouncer in the brain,” says Etzold.
This results in a crucial insight for organizations, companies and individuals: a convincing story is often more effective than pure facts. If you want to reach your target group, you have to say what will be better with you, what will be worse without you and why he or she is the right person.
If you don’t tell a story, you leave a vacuum. And this vacuum is always filled, if in doubt with a fake story. Because threat stories have evolved to have a stronger emotional impact than positive stories, they are more likely to be believed. “The motto in our brain is: Better to have a pessimist who is alive than an optimist who is dead,” says Etzold.
The consequence is therefore as simple as it is merciless. “Either you tell a good story about yourself or others tell a bad story about you,” says Etzold. This applies to companies, organizations and people, regardless of whether they are CDU or SPD, Deutsche Bank, Unicredit, Siemens, Porsche, SAP or medium and small companies such as Würth or Zeiss or consultancies and associations such as the BDI. Whoever has mastered the art of storytelling has almost won. In politics, but also in business.
About the author:
Prof. Dr. Veit Etzold is a sought-after speaker, CEO coach and consultant for strategy and storytelling. With 20 years of experience in banking, insurance, strategy consulting and executive education and as a 13-time Spiegel best-selling author with 2 million books sold (including the current thriller “Final Blood” and the non-fiction book “Jaws in Space”), he combines business and and bestseller competence. As a professor of marketing/sales and director of the Competence Center for Neuromarketing at Aalen University, he researches how stories work in the brain.