The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)

Trump reminds Potter fans of Lord Voldemort

Reading JK Rowling lowers opinion of Republican

- BY JOHN VON RADOWITZ

Donald Trump’s chances of becoming US president could take a knock because he reminds Harry Potter fans of evil wizard Lord Voldemort, a study suggests.

Reading Harry Potter books leads Americans to have a lower opinion of Republican hopeful Mr Trump, the findings show.

The more of JK Rowling’s stories about the boy wizard they read, the more anti-Trump they become, say researcher­s.

They believe the reason for the “Harry Potter effect” is thatMr Trump’s political messages are at odds with the values of Potter and his friends, which include tolerance, respect for difference, opposition to viol e n c e , and ant iauthorita­rianism.

Mr Trump is seen as having more in common with Harry Potter’s arch enemy Lord Voldemort.

The study, which involved two polls of more than 1,000 US citizens, found that each Harry Potter book read lowered participan­ts’ evaluation­s of Donald Trump by roughly 2-3 points on a 100-point scale.

Lead researcher Professor Diana Mutz, from the Department­ofPolitica­l Science at the University of Pennsylvan­ia, said: “This may seem small, 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 identifica­tion on attitudes toward gays and Muslims.”

Harry Potter is enormously popular among Americans. JK Rowling’s seventh and last book in the series, HarryPotte­rAnd The Deathly Hallows, broke all publishing records in the US, selling 8.3million copies in the first 24 hours after its launch.

The study is published in the latest issue of the quarterly journal PS: Political Science and Politics under the title “Harry Potter And The Deathly Donald?”

Prof Mutz’s team surveyed a nationally representa­tive sample of 1,142 Americans in 2014 and again in 2016. Participan­ts were asked about their exposure to Harry Potter stories, as well as their opinions about issues such as waterboard­ing, the death penalty, and the treatment of Muslims and gays.

In the 2016 poll, they were also questioned about their feelings towards Donald Trump.

Party affiliatio­n did not affect the likelihood that a person had read the Harry Potter books.

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