The Power of Character Identification in Storytelling

Character identification is perceiving the story events from the perspective of a character while taking on the character’s beliefs, values, and goals. Having a perspective and a human the audience can connect with will lead to far more impact with your story. 

A study was conducted in which students were asked to donate money based on a letter they received. Half the participants were given a fact-based version of the problem while the other half were given a story-based understanding of the problem. The individuals who received a letter with an individual’s story raised double the amount of money. Then they took it a step further and combined the story with statistics and that raised even more money.

Plot is the pillar of storytelling that leads to narrative transportation because plot drives the story’s engagement. But when we explore transportation more deeply there is also attention, imagery, and an emotional component.

And what leads to an emotional connection? People.

The characters in your story create an emotional connection with your audience. When we bring plot and people together, the character captures our emotion, making us feel something and the conflict captures our attention, making us want to know what happens. The more we connect with the character, the more we want to know what happens.

Identification is a feeling of oneness with the character. Narrative transportation puts you inside the story, whereas character identification makes you one with the character. You take on their desires and goals. You want what they want, which leads to increased emotional connection.

Click the downloads above to snag a transcript or mp3 of this tutorial. We also added two academic research studies if you want to dive into the source material.