What do Harry Potter world and Donald Trump have in common — besides Voldemort I imply ? Not much , but a cogitation out of the University of Pennsylvania suggests that one may be used as a sort of protection spell against the other .
According to the paper , define to be published in a special election subject of PS : Political Science and Politics , Americans who register or watch Harry Potter have a lower ruling of the Republican presidential prospect , due in part to the story ’s themes of tolerance , opposition to vehemence , and its “ opposition to authoritarianism . ”
Professor Diana Mutz , a professor of political science at the Annenberg School for Communication , led the report , in reality titled“Harry Potter and the Deathly Donald?”She go over 1,142 Americans in 2014 and in 2016 ( before Trump ’s campaign and after ) on their attitudes towards torture , the expiry penalty , the treatment of Muslims and homo . In the latter cogitation , she enquire them about their Trump opinions .
Mutz found that on a scale of 0 - 100 , the more Harry Potter that was deplete by the somebody , the lower their opinion was of Trump , sometimes by 2 - 3 points .
“ This may seem lowly , ” Mutz enounce ina jam release , “ but for someone who has read all seven books , the total impact could lower their estimation of Trump by 18 points out of 100 . The size of this effect is on par with the impact of party recognition on attitudes toward gays and Muslims . ”
We ’re not bring this up because of the survey itself . There are n’t any definite conclusion about how the popularity of Harry Potter has changed our thinking , and considering that 450 million copy of books from the series have been sold , this is a very minuscule sample sizing . The original study in 2014 was done before Trump was a racist Republican politician ( when he was just a billionaire dirtbag instead ) , so comparability are n’t available . There are many other factors to take into chronicle , and Mutz acknowledges this .
But rather , what ’s important to observe is what the study represents . Mutz is one of the few people who have thought about research the impact of fiction on our culture . multitude have been mull about the wallop of certain piece of mass medium , like TV games , on potential vehement tendencies for decades , for representative , but most studies have been done in science lab . Mutz ’s claims to be one of the first to utilize observational information and existent world experiences to document a ethnical phenomenon .
Mutz did obtain some other correlativity in the way that age , training , political tendency , and gender impact a soul ’s margin . allot to her figure , age and conservative ideology predict negative position towards Muslims and people in the LGBTQ community , while education had a positive effect . cleaning woman were also more likely to be more tolerant .
While J.K. Rowling may have some issues when it comes to representation of Muslims , gay people , and the great unwashed of color in her book , along with some questionable choices in the post - Potterverse , there ’s no denying that Harry Potter had a huge impingement on our culture . And depending on your rendition of it , it did stress sure values concerning leeway and acceptance , as well as working to get the better of a fascist and tyrannical evilness . Maybe there is something here .
“ Perhaps most importantly , these finding raise the hope that Harry Potter can halt the Deathly Donald and make America heavy again in the eye of the earthly concern , just as Harry did by disembarrass the maven world of Voldemort , ” she wrote .
[ EurekAlertviaUniversity of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication ]
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