According to the well-known tale, once upon a time, there was an orphan who, on the occasion of his 11th birthday, learned that he possessed a talent that distinguished him from his preteen colleagues. Over time, he struggled with the typical adolescent struggles like development, relationships, social problems, and general teen neuroses. He also had to deal with the less typical issue of fending off a violent, psychopathic wizard who was bent on building a police state based on eugenics. I'm talking about the morally upright, bespectacled young wizard Harry Potter, who is the protagonist of Lord Voldemort, the evil antagonist of the fantasy novel series written by J.K. Rowling and a hugely successful book series. In addition, despite the fact that it may seem improbable, recent study points to the possibility that Rowling's universe of house elves, half-giants, and three-headed canines might really improve humanity.
Harry Potter is the best-selling book series of all time, with over 450 million copies sold. However, it has been criticized. Particularly Christian organizations objected to the publications, saying they encouraged children to practice witchcraft and paganism. Ron Charles, a book critic for the Washington Post, referred to Potters seemingly simplistic (good vs. evil) basis as a bad case of cultural infantilism. Charles claimed that the fact that adults were also hooked on it was indicative of this. While some criticized Harry Potter's wizarding school, Hogwarts, for solely recognizing natural skill, Charles and others pointed out a certain creative vapidity in immensely marketable storytelling.
In contrast, Christopher Hitchens praised J.K. Rowling for "unmooring" English children's literature from "dreams of wealth and class and snobbery...and giving us a world of youthful democracy and diversity, in which the humble leading figure has a name that...could as well belong to an English labor union official." A rising amount of data suggests that Rowling's writing may be beneficial to read, at least while young, and that the pro-Potter camp may be on to something.
Intergroup contact, particularly contact between in-groups, or a social group to which someone identifies, and out-groups, or a group they do not identify with or perceive as threatening. It has long been recognized as an effective method for reducing negative attitudes and prejudices between various groups of people. Children's opinions about stigmatized groups can be improved just by reading short stories about characters from the in-group and out-group forming friendships.
Reading the Harry Potter books in particular has similar impacts, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. This is probably due in part to the fact that Potter is frequently in contact with stigmatized groups. Because they are incapable of using magic, "muggles" are not respected in the wizarding community. While the Lord Voldemort persona thinks that power should only be held by “pure-blood” wizards, the "half-bloods," or "mud-bloods," – wizards and witches descended from only one magical parent - don't fare any better. He looks like Hitler while wearing a disguise.
Three similar experiments were carried out by the study team under the direction of professor Loris Vezzali from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy. In the first, a questionnaire was given to 34 primary school students to gauge their sentiments toward immigrants, a group that is regularly demonized in Italy. Following that, the kids were split into two groups, which met once a week for six weeks to read passages from Harry Potter and discuss them with a research assistant. One group read passages about prejudice, such as the one where the stunningly blond pure-blood wizard Draco Malfoy refers to Harry's pal Hermione as a "filthy little Mud-blood."
The scene where Harry purchases his first magic wand was one of the non-prejudice-related portions that the control group read. The kids' views toward out-groups were evaluated once more a week following the final session. When youngsters read passages about prejudice, views toward immigrants were shown to be significantly better among those who identified with the Harry Potter character. After reading neutral paragraphs, readers' opinions remained unchanged.
Two additional experiments were carried out by Vezzali and associates, with comparable outcomes. One study discovered that Italian high school pupils' attitudes toward gays were improved by reading Harry Potter. The other claimed that English university students had more sympathy for refugees as a result of reading the books. In contrast, strongly not identifying with the wicked Voldemort did contribute to attitude changes in this older cohort. Presumably, college students don't associate as much with the younger figure.
This is consistent with the dominant social cognitive theory, according to the authors, who state that "people form attitudes not only by conforming to positive relevant others, but also by distancing themselves from negative relevant others."Of course, a variety of influences, including the media, our parents and peers, and our religious beliefs, influence how we view other people. But Vezzali's findings backs up past research that suggests reading novels as a youngster can have a favorable effect on personality development and social abilities. This implies literary engagement with life's social, cultural, and psychological intricacies. Reading literary fiction, as opposed to popular fiction or nonfiction, improves social perception and empathy. Empathy is roughly defined as the capacity to switch between various viewpoints on a particular person or situation, according to a study published in Science last year.
Rowling seems to be able to capture the beautiful, sobering mess of life in a way that could have a significant influence on our children's collective character. It seems that literature with complex, developed themes and characters allows readers to occupy or adopt perspectives they might otherwise not consider.
Vezzali informed me that since fantasy often doesn't include actual people, it may be especially good at calming unfavorable attitudes by avoiding potential defensiveness and political correctness sensitivities.
Vezzali remarked, "Unfortunately, the news we read every day reminds us we have so much work to do. But in light of our research, parents and teachers might find that fantasy novels like Harry Potter are really helpful in promoting tolerance. In order to one day have a genuine cultural impact, Vezzali's group intends to carry on researching the effects of literature and other treatments that aim to reduce prejudice.
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