The "Harry Potter" books may not be about pure magic and fantasy characters after all as U.S. researchers previously claimed that reading about the wizarding world helps eliminate social prejudice. Connecting Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort to the types of attitude that people these days have, it was found out that the young Potter inspires a group of people to be less bigot.
The study which started in 2014 tried to connect the popular novel by J.K. Rowling to the long-time social problem of prejudice. As revealed by the published report of Journal of Applied Social Psychology, researchers have found that the "Harry Potter" books have helped improve the attitudes of a social group.
The character Harry Potter, in particular, reportedly teaches a social group to be less biased as he was presented in the novel as a friendly person who tries to jive in with stigmatized groups represented in the book by "mudbloods." Being a group of "slightly different" wizards, Lord Voldemort in the story has despised the mudbloods as he patronizes pureblood wizards only. The study then revolves to the concept mirroring this "Harry Potter" problem where it is related to prejudice and bigotry towards immigrants.
According to the Scientific American, the study led by researchers Loris Vezzali from the University of Modena along with Reggio Emilia from Italy enrolled three sets of readers to their test. They formed a group involving 34 elementary school pupils who were asked to answer a questionnaire that will help them identify their attitudes towards immigrants. These children were then divided into two groups where each group met once a week in a six-week period to read and discuss the "Harry Potter" books.
The first group has reportedly focused on scenes where prejudice was seen specifically when Hermione was teased for her being a mudblood. The second group studied pages where prejudice was not manifested. After the allotted time, the children were once again placed into the same test. The researchers then found out that those children who read about prejudice and bigotry have significantly improved their attitude towards immigrants. The second group, on the other hand, was not seen with even the slightest change in their attitudes as noted by the Pacific Standard.
Researchers then believe that identifying with Harry Potter's character can have a good impact among social groups with regards to the social issue of prejudice. Follow-up studies were then made using the same material although this time, homosexuality and empathy were targeted. Social researchers then believe that the "Harry Potter" books will lean towards opening the minds of different communities to the concept of LGBT.
