Narrative change

Narrative change is the work of shifting public opinion on a social issue.

Narrative change is a social change strategy used by many social change organizations when public opinion is an obstacle to their work, such as:

  • passing legislation

  • securing government funding

  • shifting cultural norms (known as “culture change”)

The core work of narrative change is persuasion; in this work, communications and storytelling are tactics in service of persuasion.

Examples:

  • shifting public opinion on same-sex marriage to support legislation

  • shifting public opinion on the safety of elections to support new voting options to increase election turnout

  • shifting public opinion on the reliability of climate science to support government funding for science research

  • shifting public opinion on sexual harassment to create a new cultural norm where sexual harassment of any kind is not tolerated

For a list of narrative change organizations, resources and guides, visit The Narrative Home.

How are public opinion and narrative change different?

Public opinion

  • Binary: for or against

  • Persuasion: opposing arguments

  • Personal: more impacted by personal experience

  • Values-focused

Narrative change

  • Plural: challenging a restriction that limits possibilities

  • Possibility: multiple possibilities

  • Cultural: more impacted by cultural norms

  • Framing-focused

Examples of public opinion vs narrative change

  • “Equal rights for same-sex marriage” vs “Love is love”

  • “Care work deserves worker protections” vs “Care is the work that makes all other work possible”

  • “Immigrants deserve human rights” vs “Families belong together”

  • “Poverty isn’t a crime” vs “We’ve all needed help before”

  • “Elections are safe” vs “Democracy works better when we all participate”

FAQs

  • If public opinion is an obstacle to the work of your change organization, you may need to invest in a narrative change strategy.