More People Need(ed) to Read Harry Potter

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

I know, a provocative title in this community, but we have concrete evidence that reading Harry Potter leads to a small, but significant, increase in antipathy toward Donald Trump and his policies.

https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/new-study-shows-reading-harry-potter-lowers-americans%E2%80%99-opinions-donald-trump ; (Link through to the actual study in article.)

A while back I posted about a study that found that identifying with Harry Potter led to decreased bias toward stigmatized minorities.  At the time, I wondered how reading the series led people to feel about how to deal with their enemies given the vindictiveness the series shows in a close reading.  As it turns out, the more Harry Potter books someone has read, even controlling for "party identification, gender, education level, age, evangelical self-identification, and social dominance orientation," the more opposed they were to violence and punitive policies (like torturing their enemies as advocated by Trump) and authoritarianism.  This is in addition to confirmation of the decreased bias against outgroups.

You don't have to like Harry Potter, and I completely agree that the books have a lot of problems.  But let's not loose sight of the fact that the world is entering a dangerous, if not outright fascistic period.  There's too much hatred and divisiveness driving our politics; hate crimes have risen by several hundred percent since Trump's election.  If reading Harry Potter does help lead people to greater tolerance and mercy, we shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Comments

[kahran042]

If it says that that reading Harry Potter is correlated with people becoming kinder, more tolerant, and more opposed to cruel and vindictive policies, then it implies that not reading it makes them crueler, less tolerant, and less opposed to cruel and vindictive policies, and since you support the study, you obviously think so, too. Anyway, since you obviously hate people who don't blindly worship Harry Potter, what are you doing on this community?

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

Something causing a rise above a baseline does not imply the lack of it causes a sink - it can just mean it STAYS AT THE BASELINE. And I don't worship Harry Potter. I said in this very post that it's not perfect. By far. But not being perfect doesn't mean that it does more harm than good, let alone that it is inherently awful. Is there something about that too complicated for you to understand, or are you just a troll?

[kahran042]

I understood, but was just frustrated by the presence of such an overtly-political post that was also pro-Potter on this community, and was venting that frustration. I hope that we can move past this.

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

So you feel it's appropriate to vent through relentless ad hominem attacks, claiming that I want to "deport or execute" anyone who doesn't love Harry Potter and am not intelligent enough to understand science, among other accusations?

I'm sorry to wreck your day by bringing in politics, but I promise you that a whole lot of people I love wish this was the worst thing to happen to them in the last week.

Though not perfect, Harry Potter has been shown, repeatedly, in multiple studies, to make readers just a bit kinder and more tolerant overall, and that's a GOOD THING and the world needs more of it. Even if you personally hate it, many others don't, and letting them get on with reading the books in peace (and maybe having a *friendly* discussion of the more problematic bits after) is a way to spread that goodwill just a little further. We seem to be running short of those these days. Not just in America, either.

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

Has it been indicated repeatedly in many studies? I thought you mentioned only one study. Multiple studies pointing in the same direction might indeed be showing causality rather that just correlation. Of course when it comes to human thoughts and feelings, one can never be certain what is causing what. Studies in social attitudes never have the certainty of hard science.