Narrative Coherence
People judge stories by whether they hang together and ring true, not by whether they are evidenced; a coherent story beats a messy truth.
An everyday example
A tidy explanation of a failure that names one cause and one villain, accepted over the tangled reality.
What it can cost you
Accepting the explanation that is neatest rather than the one that is right; symmetrical structure mistaken for logic.
Warning signs
- It all fits, and that satisfies me.
- There is exactly one cause and one villain.
One thing to do
Distrust neatness in proportion to the complexity of the thing explained; ask what the story leaves out. Merged: structural symmetry.
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