Stories stand at the center of our humanity
It is by means of stories that we share our experiences from one person to another and connect with others. We create meaning in the form of narratives. Stories are the core of our memory, fantasy, and future planning — they are what allow us to live rich lives.
In the past decade, our lab has pioneered work on narrative, empathy, and transformative experience. We have conducted the largest story-retelling studies to date in the Telephone Game format, and found what anchors a story as it travels: emotions. We have provided evidence that empathy can fuel polarization. And in new studies, we investigate how the mere retelling of a meaningful memory can have therapeutic effects.
Stories carry our morality and culture — but they can also divide and polarize us, propagate problematic values, and cement stereotypes. How should we balance the good and the bad of stories? That tension sits at the heart of the lab's work.
There are open questions, and there are the challenges of our age. We face the danger that we forget how to tell our stories — that we devalue our own experiences in a world of media and AI. Current and future projects include narrative emotions, meaningful memories, first-time experiences, empathy, polarization, AI, and much more.
Five threads, one question
Co-experience, empathy, narrative thinking, cultural evolution, and transformative experience — how do minds connect?
Explore the work → DirectorFritz Breithaupt
Humanities scholar and cognitive scientist. Professor at Penn, affiliate of MindCORE, prize-winning author.
Meet the director → PublicationsBooks & papers
From The Narrative Brain and The Dark Sides of Empathy to thirty-plus articles across the sciences and humanities.
Browse the work →A new book, a new home
In June 2026, Fritz's new book on first-time and transformative experience — Einmal, Zweimal, Keinmal: Wie wir Erfahrungen machen (Suhrkamp) — met a warm reception in Germany and Switzerland, introduced officially in Hamburg by Robert Habeck, Germany's former vice chancellor. The lab itself has recently moved to a new home at the University of Pennsylvania, where we are building up a new group while keeping good ties with friends all over.
The lab is re-forming at Penn
Students and researchers from any field — cognitive science, literature, psychology, computer science, linguistics — are welcome. The lab works democratically: any team member can lead a project.
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