Here is an interesting article about the relationship between kids who read Harry Potter stories and those who don’t.
Psychologists Find a Surprising Thing Happens to Kids Who Read Harry PotterThen we have this study, it is a little older but still interesting,
Science Mic
By Tom McKay
July 30, 2014
The first took 34 Italian fifth-graders and plunged them into a six-week course on Potter. The researchers began by having the students fill out a questionnaire on immigrants, and then split them into two groups which read selected passages from the series. The students in the first group discussed prejudice and bigotry as themes in the books, while the others didn't, serving as a control group. The students in the first group showed "improved attitudes towards immigrants," but only if they identified with Potter.
A second study with 117 Italian high school students found that a reader's emotional identification with Harry was associated with more positive perceptions of LGBT people in general. A third, which surveyed U.K. college students, ultimately found no association between an emotional bond with Harry and perceptions of refugees. But it did indicate that students who had less of an emotional identification with Voldemort had "improved attitudes toward refugees."
In all three studies, the researchers credited the books with improving the readers' ability to assume the perspective of marginalized groups. They also claimed that young children, with the help of a teacher, were able to understand that Harry's frequent support of "mudbloods" was an allegory towards bigotry in real-life society.
‘Harry Potter’ Books Brainwashed Millennials To Elect President Barack Obama, New Study SaysHmm… no wonder the conservatives hated the books. Also conservative Christians want the books banned from school libraries because they were about witchcraft and magic, little did they know the books also taught tolerance for those who are different.
International Business Times
By Rebecka Schumann
August 14 2013
The popular young adult book series “Harry Potter” is being targeted as a reason behind the 2008 election of U.S. President Barack Obama. In the study, released by University of Vermont Political Science Professor Anthony Gierzynski, it is alleged that millennials who read the fantasy novels are the reason for the 44th president’s success.
According to a report from the Daily Caller, Gierzynski’s study states that Americans born from 1980 onward have showed support for Obama due to being “brainwashed” by the moral lessons discussed in the best-selling, seven-book J.K. Rowling series. “The lessons fans internalized about tolerance, diversity, violence, torture, skepticism and authority made the Democratic Party and Barack Obama more appealing to fans of 'Harry Potter' in the current political environment,” Gierzynski said.
The claims were based on the study’s conclusion which found that 60 percent of 1,100 millennial-aged college students surveyed who had read “Harry Potter” also voted for Obama in 2008. Eighty-three percent of those surveyed who read the books also reportedly claimed to have an "unfavorable" view of Republican and former U.S. President George W. Bush.
Could Gierzynski's study simply reflect that the most conservative families (read evangelical families) didn't allow their kids to read Harry Potter and that determined who they voted for and not what books they read? It sounds like Gierzynski had the conclusion was in place before the study started.
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