An article recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology entitled ‘The greatest magic of Harry Potter: Reducing prejudice’, has reported the findings of examining the attitudes of primary, secondary and university students towards particular social groups in relation to their knowledge of J.K. Rowlings’ hugely popular fiction series.
The article covered three related studies. In the first, conducted at Italy’s the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia’s Research Center on Interethnic Relations, Multiculturality and Immigration, 34 fifth grade students were given a questionnaire regarding their attitudes towards immigrants. For the following six weeks, a researcher met with the students in small groups once a week to read passages from the Harry Potter series and have discussions.
After the six weeks, the students took the same questionnaire, and also added whether they identified more with protagonist Harry Potter or his nemesis Lord Voldemort. During the six weeks, half of the students read and discussed passages related to prejudice- including an excerpt in which Draco Malfoy calls Hermione Granger a “filthy little mudblood”- a slur referring to her “muggle” or non-magical heritage. The following discussions focused on prejudice and how it affected the characters.
The researchers found that students who discussed prejudice-related passages and related to Harry Potter showed “improved attitudes towards immigrants”.
Two other studies occurred to assess students’ attitudes towards homosexuals and refugees. In the former, 117 Italian high school students were given surveys allowing researchers to assess their attitude towards gay people, and were also asked to note how many Harry Potter books they’d read. The study found that the students who had read more Harry Potter books also tended to have more positive attitudes towards gay people.
Study leader Dr. Loris Vezzali told the Huffington Post that he felt emotional identification with the protagonist of the books was at the heart of the change in attitude.
“Harry Potter empathizes with characters from stigmatized categories, tries to understand their sufferings and to act towards social equality,” he said.
“So, I and my colleagues think that empathic feelings are the key factor driving prejudice reduction.”
“Attitudes of young children are more malleable, and so it should be a priority of educators to tackle prejudiced attitudes from a younger age, when attitudes are still not ‘too resistant to change.'”
Author J.K. Rowling has frequently discussed the social and political themes of the books. She also famously revealed that she had always thought of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore as gay. John Granger noted in his book ‘Harry Potter’s Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures’ that Rowling made comments in an interview about the book’s message for social equality:
“The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry, and I think it’s one of the reasons that some people don’t like the books, but I think that it’s a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth.”
