People expected to enjoy unfamiliar stories more. An experiment found the opposite.

You might think people would prefer an interesting new story to one they already know. However, Harvard researchers found that listeners sometimes enjoyed familiar stories more than unfamiliar ones, even when the storytellers expected the opposite. The 2017 study, published in Psychological Science, found that knowing something about a subject can make a story more enjoyable. When people are already familiar with what happened, they can follow along more easily. Without that background, even a fascinating experience can be difficult to appreciate. Three women talk in a family room. Photo Credit: Canva Why did people enjoy familiar stories? Researchers conducted four experiments to explore how people respond to stories about both familiar and unfamiliar events. In one experiment, participants described a video they’d watched to someone else. Some listeners had already seen the video, while others had not. The storytellers expected people who hadn’t seen the video to enjoy hearing about it more. After all, the experience would be completely new to them. But the results showed the opposite: listeners who were already familiar with the video enjoyed the retelling more. The researchers called this phenomenon the “novelty penalty.” An unfamiliar story could lose its appeal when people struggled to follow what was happening. Three people talk at a table. Photo credit: Canva Why do storytellers get this wrong? One challenge of telling a story is that the person sharing it already knows how everything fits together. They know the people involved, the circumstances, and the little details that make it funny, suspenseful, or memorable. Their audience doesn’t necessarily have that background. As Gus Cooney, a study co-author and Harvard PhD student at the time, explained in The Harvard Gazette, storytellers can underestimate how difficult it is for someone else to picture an unfamiliar experience. “If I am telling you a story about Turkey or Thailand you may start to imagine it, but as the story goes on I start introducing new characters and new places and things that I’ve done, I think our imaginations can often fail us if we’ve never been to those places ourselves,” Cooney said. “Imagination is great, but it also has its limits,” he added. Familiarity helps listeners fill in the gaps. Even when a storyteller leaves something out, someone who already knows the subject can often understand what they mean. A young man shares his story. Photo Credit: Canva What makes someone a better storyteller? A 2024 study published in Cognition explored another side of storytelling. Researchers asked participants to describe a video game they had played. Some were told to recall everything they could, while others were asked to convey it as if telling a friend at a party. Researchers found that listeners enjoyed stories more when the storyteller used language that conveyed greater confidence. Including more general information about the game was also linked to greater interest in buying it. Both studies point to ways people can become better storytellers. The Harvard study highlights the importance of giving listeners enough background to follow along, while the newer research suggests that delivery can also influence its appeal. For everyday conversations, that means paying attention to what listeners already know, providing enough context to bring them along, and telling the story naturally rather than trying to make every detail sound extraordinary. Sometimes, making an ordinary experience entertaining is the more impressive skill.