Study Finds A Correlation Between Reading Harry Potter & Hating Donald Trump

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Holy slytherin! A new study has revealed that people who have read the Harry Potter books are more likely to dislike Donald Trump.

The study by the University of Pennsylvania, aptly titled ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Donald?’ surveyed 1,142 people between 2014 and 2016, to measure their exposure to the Harry Potter books and movies, and then measured their feelings about Trump on a scale of zero to 100.

The results have indicated that Harry Potter readers dislike Trump more than those who hadn’t read the books, this is despite their age, education, gender, ideology, party identification, and religious beliefs.

Interestingly, unlike the books, the Harry Potter movies didn’t have an impact on people’s opinions on Trump. So we can’t rationalise this all down to the mysterious powers of Emma Watson.

Author Diana Mutz reckons that the novels’ major themes – the value of tolerance, opposition to violence, and the dangers of authoritarianism – resonate with readers.

Her findings also hypothesized that Potter-heads might recognize some Voldemort qualities in Trump: likening his drive to eradicate half-bloods and muggles, to Trump’s policy in deporting undocumented immigrants and banning Muslims.

The author said: “It may simply be too difficult for Harry Potter readers to ignore the similarities between Trump and the power-hungry Voldemort.”

But should we liken the two? J.K. Rowling famously tweeted that she didn’t agree with the comparison.