In this episode of Connection Happens, I sit down with psychologist, researcher, educator, and Nerdy Psychologist Book Club host Dr. Brandi Hawk for a wide-ranging conversation about psychology, storytelling, identity, belief, and the ways fiction can help us understand ourselves.

Brandi reflects on the relationship between psychology and literature, including why dystopian stories resonate so strongly, how first impressions shape the way we interpret characters and people, and why beliefs can become so deeply tied to identity that challenging them can feel like a personal threat.

We also dig into cognitive dissonance, belief perseverance, hypervigilance, and the psychological aftermath of prolonged stress, using fictional characters as a way into much larger conversations about how people cope, adapt, and change. Along the way, we explore the importance of diverse perspectives, the role experience plays in shaping understanding, and why personal growth is rarely as clean or linear as stories sometimes make it seem.

From there, the conversation turns to storytelling itself: what makes characters feel psychologically believable, why villains matter, how writers can create authentic emotional arcs, and what happens when psychology reveals things in a character that the author may not have consciously put there.

A recurring theme throughout the episode is the connection between story and self: how the narratives we consume, the beliefs we hold, and the experiences we survive all become part of the way we understand who we are.

It’s a conversation about psychology, fiction, identity, and why sometimes the safest way to understand real people is to start with imaginary ones.