A cheap trick, in my opinion.

Whether it's a cheap trick or not is irrelevant to me. I'm talking about story telling as an anthropological, psychological, and sociological process. For example, as an anthropologist, I can ask, what purpose does story telling serve a culture? As a psychologist, I could ask, what brain mechanisms allow us to produce a story? As a sociologist, I can investigate how the norms and behaviors of a culture are transmitted through narrative. It's quite a rich field of study. Take a look at this article for further reading- Anthropology: Storytelling and Narrative Anthropology.

Cheers!