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  • In J. K. Rowling's best-selling books, the boy wizard Harry Potter continually fights pure evilyou know, that creepy snake tongue man with no nose.

  • But how would Harry go fighting the evil forces of the world we live in?

  • By evil forces, I mean bigotry, prejudice, and other negative attitudes that are the roots of our social conflicts.

  • Could he diminish these bitter human traits and make us better?

  • Turns out he already has.

  • A good amount of research shows that reading fiction can increase empathy, improve our understanding of other people, and reduce prejudice.

  • And over the 20 years since Harry Potter was first published, researchers have been finding this story is particularly good at promoting these prosocial values.

  • 20 years...doesn't time fly by?

  • So, what's so special about Harry Potter?

  • Well, Harry's world wasn't just fun, magic, and wizardry; it was plagued with the same injustice that exists in our world.

  • For instance, the bad characters in the story, like Voldemort and the Death Eaters, believed "pure blood" wizards were superior to muggle-borns, whom they called "mudbloods.”

  • Of course, these kinds of themes are nothing new in literature, but J.K. Rowling approaches them in a way that's accessible to children.

  • And learning about these issues at an early age may help kids apply this understanding to their own social environments.

  • So, how well do children learn from Harry?

  • In a series of experiments published in 2015, researchers in Italy examined whether reading Harry Potter improves attitudes toward stigmatized groups, including immigrants and LGBTQ people.

  • In a survey of high schoolers, those who read the most Harry Potter books and related to Harry were more open toward LGBTQ people.

  • But was that the effect of reading the books or were more open minded people more attracted to the books?

  • To find out, the researchers gathered a group of fifth-graders and asked them about their attitudes toward immigrants.

  • Then, over a few weeks, the students broke into smaller groups and discussed passages from the Harry Potter books.

  • Kids who focused on sections dealing with prejudice and also identified with Harry showed improved attitudes towards immigrants.

  • Researchers think the Harry Potter stories have this effect because it improves empathythe experience of understanding another person's condition from their perspective.

  • And we can see examples of this in the pages!

  • A textual analysis of the series found that Harry and his friends responded empathetically to acts of discrimination.

  • Empathy is communicated to readers through Harry's inner thoughts, perspectives, actions and words.

  • Fiction is the simulation of people and their experiences.

  • So reading is like practicing how life feels through another person's eyes. The power of fiction is that this can lead to changes in everyday life.

  • Psychologists have surveyed people before and after reading novels and found that getting immersed in a story improves empathy and theory of mind.

  • In one brain imaging study in 2013, researchers found after people read a novel, three hub regions in their brain show altered activity for several days.

  • These regions have been linked to language function and representing other people's perspectives.

  • In other words, when we read stories, we activate the same brain areas as those involved in understanding of the people.

  • And according to the narrative collective-assimilation hypothesis, experiencing a narrative leads us to psychologically become a part of the group described within the narrative.

  • In a 2011 study, participants who read passages from the Harry Potter and Twilight series showed this effect.

  • They tended to implicitly associate wizard or vampire words with themselves. Some said they felt more British or they thought they had sharper teeth.

  • In other words, those who read the Twilight series identified with vampires and Harry Potter readers identified with wizards. Because obviously I'm in Ravenclaw.

  • So the real magic of Harry Potter is that, by reading it, we become more psychologically like him: an orphan who stands up against injustice and discrimination and befriends a variety of people from different social standings and backgrounds.

  • Because, just as Dumbledore said, "Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.”

In J. K. Rowling's best-selling books, the boy wizard Harry Potter continually fights pure evilyou know, that creepy snake tongue man with no nose.

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