The greatest magic of Harry Potter: Reducing prejudice

By Loris Vezzali, S. Stathi, D. Giovannini, D. Capozza, E. Trifiletti. 2015

228 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Recent research shows that extended contact via story reading is a powerful strategy to improve out-group attitudes. We conducted three studies to test whether extended contact through reading the popular best-selling books of Harry Potter improves attitudes toward stigmatized groups (immigrants, homosexuals, refugees). Results from one experimental intervention with elementary school children and from two cross-sectional studies with high school and university students (in Italy and United Kingdom) supported our main hypothesis. Identification with the main character (i.e., Harry Potter) and disidentification from the negative character (i.e., Voldemort) moderated the effect. Perspective taking emerged as the process allowing attitude improvement. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed in the context of extended intergroup contact and social cognitive theory.

Subfields: Literature and Literary Theory, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c9ad7d584a7d49f03b627efb4f1ddf9b0bf2d2eb

Citations in the corpus

• Confidence in Contact: A New Perspective on Promoting Cross-Group Friendship Among Children and Adolescents (2016, unknown): “…contact with an interactive activity such as a group discussion about the cross-group friendship is important, and must be guided by a facilitator who can encourage children to focus on positive aspects of the cross-group friendship (e.g., Cameron et al., 2006, 2011a; Vezzali et al., 2015).”