Inner Revolutions and Other True Stories: Culture, Belief and Narrative.

Why do people believe passionately in certain claims or ideas for which evidence is incomplete or unattainable? What processes operate behind the rational actor, influencing her or his ascriptions of truth? This paper explores some culturally dependent ways that people come to believe in the truth of the stories they share. The empirical case is a contested "true story" disseminated by members of a politically mobilized, religious group. The study shows how the social experience of believing something is "true" can be embedded in endogenous storytelling processes deriving from narrative form, commonly shared yet highly contingent interpretations of historical context, and the unconscious appeal of certain abstract myths. A thick reconstruction of the religious group's cultural universe, based on ethnographic research, reveals how claims can feel true due to processes related to narration rather than to the strict plausibility of facts or the influence of perceived interests. Finally, the study also explores how the formal composition of narrative can exert hidden but potent influence on the evaluation of stories. When actors make ascriptions of truth, these various cultural processes operate quite apart from deliberative questions of evidence, veracity, and reason, not to mention objective conditions in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]