I know, a provocative title in this community, but we have concrete evidence that reading Harry Potter leads to a small, but significant, increase in antipathy toward Donald Trump and his policies
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I've spent some time archive binging recently and got to thinking about what the new conclusions meant for old issues that weren't directly addressed. In particular, I was reminded of all the old complaints about Lily's sacrifice being held up as exceptional even though most parents would die for their children. And if sacrificial magic is as
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A recent paper published in Journal of Applied Social Psychology found that reader identification with with the main character of Harry Potter (and disidentification with Voldemort) positively correlated with reduced bias toward stigmatized minorities in real life. Researchers found this Harry Potter effect was significant even after controlling
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Rowling never specified what breed of dog Sirius' Animagus form was, and 'a bear-like black dog' doesn't do much to narrow the field of possibilities. However, if we assume that the transformation closely reflects the wizard's personality, and perhaps reinforces it, I think I might have identified our mystery breed.