Harry Potter could help stop Donald Trump becoming US president

The more Potter books a person has read, the lower their opinion of the Republican candidate

JK Rowling's Harry Potter books promote tolerance and an 'opposition to authoritarianism' (Everett Collection)

The threat of Donald Trump becoming president may be enough to make some Americans contemplate leaving their country but there is hope yet in an unlikely hero.

Harry Potter fans have been found to have a lower opinion of the Republican candidate in a new study carried out by the University of Pennsylvania, meaning the famous boy wizard could theoretically help save the day.

The paper, due for publication in an election special of PS: Political Science and Politics, claims that Americans who read JK Rowling’s Hogwarts stories are more likely to dislike Trump, possibly as a result of the franchise’s “opposition to authoritarianism” (we’re looking at you, Voldemort) and promotion of diversity, tolerance and acceptance. This was found to be the case even when predictors such as age, education and political leanings were controlled.

Brilliantly titled “Harry Potter and the Deathly Donald”, it is the result of a survey of 1,142 Americans before and after Trump’s campaign in 2014 and 2016. Those taking part were asked for their views on a range of controversial issues from the death penalty and torture to Islamophobia and gay rights. They were directly asked about Trump in the latter part of the study.

The study’s leader, Professor Diana Mutz from the Annenberg School for Communication, found that the more Harry Potter an individual had read, the lower their opinion of Trump on a scale of 0-100, sometimes by up to 3 points.

“This may seem small but for someone who has read all seven books, the total impact could lower their estimate of Trump by 18 points out of 100,” Mutz said in a press release. “The size of this effect is on par with the impact of party identification on attitudes towards gays and Muslims. Because Trump’s political views are widely viewed as opposed to the values espoused in the Harry Potter series, exposure to the Potter series may play an influential role in influencing how Americans respond to Donald Trump.”

To date, 450 million copies of Harry Potter have been sold worldwide and it remains unknown conclusively how the books might have changed people’s thinking. However, Mutz’s study offers evidence that our opinions can be influenced by lessons learned from fiction. “Perhaps most importantly, these findings raise the hope that Harry Potter can stop the Deathly Donald and make America great again in the eyes of the world, just as Harry did by ridding the wizard world of Voldemort,” she said.

Rowling will likely be pleased by the study’s findings after she tweeted last December that Voldemort was “nowhere near as bad” as Trump.