Neuroscientist and psychologist at Northeastern University. Author of How Emotions Are Made and Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain. Her key insight for storytelling: “You might think that your perceptions of the world are driven by events in the world, but really, they are anchored in your predictions.”
This reinforces David Eagleman—perception is prediction-driven, not event-driven. The brain runs a continuous simulation, constantly creating and revising a mental model of the world. You live inside that simulation, not inside the actual world.
But here’s what makes Barrett’s work special: she demolished the myth that emotions are hardwired. You don’t have a rage circuit or a fear circuit. You have an ensemble of neural systems that construct emotions based on context and prediction. Same physiological arousal—racing heart, heightened attention—but your brain interprets that arousal differently depending on what story you’re telling yourself.
You’re at a horror film? That arousal becomes fear. You’re on a roller coaster? That same arousal becomes exhilaration. You’re in a board meeting when your competitor launches? That arousal becomes urgency or panic or determination—depending on the narrative framework you apply.
This is everything for business storytelling.
Your audience’s emotional response isn’t inevitable. It’s constructed. And it’s constructed through the story you tell. You can’t make people feel something by describing an emotion. You can’t say “this is awesome” and have them experience awe. But you can create the conditions—the context, the valence, the stakes—where their brain constructs that emotion for itself.
Barrett’s research proves that the storyteller isn’t imposing emotion on a passive listener. You’re providing the scaffolding where their own prediction engine builds the feeling from the inside.
That’s more powerful than manipulation. That’s co-creation.