The Psychology of Disney Design & Storytelling
with Dr. Troy Hiduke Campbell
Psychology Researcher, former Walt Disney Imagineer, and On Your Feet Chief Scientist
“I love that the same principles that make Disney amazing can be used by everyone in their work, life, and art — and that psychological science can help us all, even the best designers, use those principles better.”
Dr. Troy Hiduke Campbell uses a “scientific mind, artistic heart” approach to help people learn and make amazing things.
In his work, he combines psychological science with creativity to produce novel ideas, including original design work for Disney and original academic analysis of Disney design.
On this page, we have collected some of his popular thoughts and videos related to Disney, where he discusses powerful design and storytelling principles, with insights from his scientific research at Duke University, his work with us at On Your Feet, and, of course, his research and design work at Disney.
You can also visit Hiduke House where Troy shares original science, investigates design theories, and discusses his work for Comic-Con, Disney, Netflix, Nike, and many others
The Destiny Narrative - How to tell a Powerful Story
The Principle: The Destiny Narrative is a story in which a character changes into more of who they already are. It is the foundation of so many myths, movies, and marketing campaigns.
The Science: This Destiny Narrative works when it powerfully resolves the conflict between the psychological motives to positively change and authentically stay the same — two motives that are usually in conflict.
Types of Happiness - And the Overlooked Importance of Feeling “Carefree”
The Principle: Design for happiness is an approach that prioritizes positive emotions.
The Science: Positive emotions can come from many sources, including meaningfulness, stimulation, and feeling carefree — and the best experiences combine positive emotions that come from multiple sources.
Learn More: Podcast
Portals - How to Better Begin Everything
The Principle: Portals are a model for beginning an experience in a way that transitions the audience.
The Science: The mind needs time and guidance to transition, and a good transition creates three distinct things scientists respectively call “anticipated utility,” “mindset shift,” and “narrative transportation” that each require slightly different cues to fully facilitate.
The Big Identity Net - How To Make People Feel Like They Belong
The Principle: Big Identity Net is an identity definition that is big enough that many people can feel a part of it.
The Science: People tend to choose items and engage in behaviors that they feel are consistent with their sense of self. Instead of asking, “Is this good or cool or right or best?” people often just ask themselves the question, “Is this me?” Big Identity Nets appeal to the centrality of social identity in decision making.
Scientific Mind, Artistic Heart - Troy’s Design Philosophy
The Principle: The scientific mind, artistic heart approach combines two overlapping but distinctly different approaches and encourages not only the combination of the two, but also intentional oscillation between their divergent ways of thinking, different knowledge libraries, and diverse toolsets.
The Science: This perspective is, in part, inspired by mindset theory that states that humans have different mental modes that cannot be activated simultaneously. The scientific mind, artistic heart approach encourages one to oscillate between these two different modes as a way to use different parts of one’s brain.
Dr. Troy Hiduke Campbell is an influential psychological science researcher, former Walt Disney Imagineer, Duke University PhD, and Oregon business professor.
At his “scientific mind, artistic heart” project Hiduke House, he writes about many different ideas in science, business, society, tech, and art.
At On Your Feet, he serves as chief scientist and leads ideation workshops and skills trainings, including storytelling and the The Science of Now . . . series.
