What can a book about a male child wizard agitate a bad guy who drinks unicorn blood teach kid about the veridical populace ? A whole lot , according to a study conducted by researcher in Italy . AsPacific Standardreports , nipper who readHarry Potterhold more accepting views toward marginalise groups .
For the study , publishedin theJournal of Applied Social Psychologyin 2015 , the squad of researchers appear at three group of lecturer . The first lie of 34 Italian 5th graders . scholarly person were asked to answer questions dealing with their attitudes toward immigrants before reveal into groups to discuss transit from theHarry Potterbooks over a six - week flow . Kids from groups that sharpen on sections deal with prejudice specifically showed “ better attitudes towards immigrants”—but only if they describe identifying with the chief character .
For the 2d part of the subject , the research worker surveyed 117 Italian gamey schoolers . The respondent who study the mostHarry Potterbooks and link to Harry exhibit a more overt attitude toward jovial individuals .
eventually , they collected data from 71 undergraduate scholar in the UK . This time they wanted to get it on howHarry Potterwould influence readers ’ perspectives on refugee . Unlike the previous participants , the college students who identified with Harry were n’t any more likely to be accept of the disfranchised grouping ( mayhap because the older reader are less likely to link to a youthful character no matter their personality ) . But if they also reported not feeling any connection to Voldemort , then their position toward refugee had a greater hazard of being positive .
It ’s not hard to find metaphors for racial government in theHarry Potterbooks as an adult . The words Voldemort and the Death Eaters use to draw “ pure profligate ” superstar and muggle - born “ mudbloods ” are n’t too far - removed from existent Nazi language . But as the research suggests , young reader do n’t need to be conversant with the tangible - world parallels to savvy the message .
[ h / tPacific Standard ]
