Stories have played a central role in human social and political life for thousands of
years. Despite their ubiquity in culture and custom, however, they feature only
peripherally in formal government policymaking. Government policy has tended to rely on
tools with more predictable responses—incentives, transfers, and prohibitions. We argue
that stories can and should feature more centrally in government policymaking. We lay out
how stories can make policy more effective, specifying how they complement established
policy tools. We provide a working definition of stories’ key characteristics, contrasting
them with other forms of communication. We trace the evolution of stories from their
ancient origins to their role in mediating the impact of modern technologies on society.
We then provide an account of the mechanisms underlying stories’ impacts on their
audiences. We conclude by describing three functions of stories—learning, persuasion, and
collective action.