Narrative Priming: how stories shape the ways we think, feel, and evolve.

"Stories are equipment for living" -Kenneth Burke

There’s a strong focus surrounding the idea that our thoughts are formative, that the language we use and the stories we tell have a significant impact on our psyche and how our lives eventually unfold. Everyone has likely had the experience of enjoying a book only to have it color their thoughts and witness it shape their expectations for the day. I’d wager that you can think of a film off the top of your head that you know can spark a psychological shift in you (mine is Under the Tuscan Sun).

One of my mentors from when I was a TA in positive psychology at UNM, Dr. Bruce Smith, used the concept of Joseph Campbell’s hero's journey as a powerful psychological tool to help prime the mind towards deep meaning-making through narratives that we find in our own lives (Smith, 2018). While the term "narrative priming" is still emerging in psychology, it does show up in research regarding memory (Mace et al., 2025), criminal justice (Wiltsie, K. M.), and language production (Crowder, 2016). The context surrounding these studies demonstrates narratives (stories) serve as a medium for priming both cognitive and/or behavioral outcomes, and while our use of them within the context of contemplative practice may not be precisely the same, they do share mechanistic overlap. 

In both the laboratory and life, narratives aren’t just entertainment; they help tune our psychological resonance. The use of stories, metaphors, or symbolic blessings in our lives allows us to activate reflective and emotional pathways that aid us in making sense of and finding meaning in our lives. Often, the more emotionally salient, especially when negative (Kensinger, 2009), the more powerful they will be (Green & Brock, 2000), as highly charged stimuli get flagged by the amygdala as significant, receive priority in the hippocampus - the brain's memory hub, and then are more robustly supported for long-term consolidation in cortical networks.

 One of the gifts that my positive psychology professor was able to give his students by encouraging them to examine the events of their lives through the framework of the hero’s journey was the ability to place any feeling of tension, change, integration, or sense of deeper purpose within this universally resonant narrative arc. This means that what once felt like personal failure (a salient negative experience) now becomes an essential touchstone in the blueprint of transformation. The quiet gift of narrative priming is that it allows us to reframe struggle as initiation into coherence rather than descent into disorder, similar to how Maya Angelou transforms pain into power or Nelson Mandela used a future-oriented narrative of unity to prime the healing of a nation. 

I’ve used the film Under the Tuscan Sun, -the story of a woman who is devastated by her husband’s infidelity and starts a new life of healing after spontaneously buying a villa in Tuscany-  so often as a narrative primer for healing that my husband will always raise an eyebrow and ask if everything is okay if he walks in and it’s playing. The themes of resilience, playful innocence in tandem with life’s unfolding, and faith in tomorrow, when presented with despair, strike at the heart of what it is that propels me forward toward the belief that while I may not have felt a sense of lighthearted wholeness today, that as long as we are living and breathing, there is the hope of grace for tomorrow.

The brilliance of narrative priming is that not only does it grant a psychic shift (however subtle or profound), but it also increases our capacity for perceptual openness in its wake. It shapes a new lens for us so that, as we move forward, we find beauty, meaning, and resonance in things we would have overlooked before. After watching Under the Tuscan Sun, for instance, I can see a field of sunflowers and experience the same spaciousness and openheartedness that the film evoked -and find that glimmer in my own life. This doesn't occur because the world has changed; it occurs because narrative priming has shifted my ability to perceive the beauty already present within it.

So I wonder: 

What themes, stories, or archetypes serve as narrative primers for you that awaken resilience, joy, wonder, and a longing for the miraculous in life? Where have you seen them expand your perceptual openness?

What beautiful, salient narratives could you approach that have the potential to illuminate your psyche and shift the context around how you view and approach a personal challenge?

References

• Crowder, R. M. (2016). Priming of narrative language in young adults. Louisiana State University.

• Green, M. C., & Brock, T. C. (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

• Kensinger, E. A. (2009). Remembering the details: Effects of emotion. Emotion Review.

• Mace, J. H., Ingle, K. E., & Aaron, H. E. (2025). Narrative processing primes autobiographical memories. Memory & Cognition.

• Smith, B. W. (2018). Positive Psychology for Your Hero’s Journey: Discovering True and Lasting Happiness.

• Wiltsie, K. M. (2021). The role of the anchoring effect and narrative priming in judicial decision-making. Drexel University.