Watching movies and reading books about our favorite wizards
is already amazing and fun in its own right,
but there's actually a lot of psychology found within the Harry Potter stories.
Psychology is everywhere, even at Hogwarts.
Here's 10 psychological lessons from Harry Potter.
One: the Hogwarts house system can enhance the social tribal effect.
When groups face prejudice, their bond may become stronger,
though this isn't always a good thing.
There's quite a bit of prejudice against some of the houses, Slytherin in particular.
If they feel the psychological weight of it,
they're more likely to stick together and create an "us versus them" atmosphere,
making them very loyal to their group.
Two: Dobby inspired a psychological concept.
The beloved Dobby actually has a concept named after him.
The Dobby effect, coined by Nellisen and Zeelenberg in 2009,
is when people over correct themselves, rightfully or not.
After committing a wrong, guilt can be a good thing, as it encourages us to be moral,
but the Dobby effect shows that it can be harmful too
when experienced in overly large proportions, causing people to invoke self punishment.
Three: Harry Potter shows signs of PTSD.
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, occurs after experiencing a traumatic event.
Such as witnessing a terrorist attack, getting kidnapped,
or suffering from childhood abuse.
When you think about what Harry has to go through in the Dursley household
and during the second wizarding war,
it's not surprising for him to exhibit traits of PTSD.
Some of the symptoms he displays include
reliving events through nightmares or flashbacks,
having difficulty talking about the traumatic events,
and feeling irritable and jittery.
Four: Rita Skeeter is a metaphor for anxiety.
Anxiety often turns relatively simple things into large scary problems.
Rita Skeeter, the gossip columnist, does the same.
Twisting tiny details into massive, over exaggerated headline stories
that have no truthful basis.
Five: Ron Weasley suffers from arachnophobia.
As spiders continuously show up through the series,
Ron confesses that he'd rather follow the butterflies.
Six: Voldemort starts showing serial killer tropes from a young age.
There's an entire arc of the series dedicated to building a psychological profile of Voldemort.
During Harry's private lessons with Dumbledore,
they sift through memories of people who are connected to Voldemort.
Some criminal stereotypes they find include
his loner nature, bullying tendencies,
strong sense of superiority, and lack of empathy for living things.
Seven: Draco's journey shows that nurture isn't everything.
We don't always turn out the way we expect to.
Draco, undoubtedly, has done some nasty things,
but who would have guessed that the childhood bully would turn out to be quite mature.
He manages to move beyond the prejudice he grew up with,
and throws Harry the wands at the end of the series.
It's a very interesting character arc, and you can't help but feel a little emotional.
Eight: cognitive dissonance can put a whole society in danger.
When Cornelius Fudge denies Voldemort's return as a result of cognitive dissonance,
the wizarding community is put in danger.
Cognitive dissonance is when someone has two lines of thought that contradict each other.
In this case, Fudge has been working tirelessly towards peace and safety,
yet there are signs of Voldemort's return,
causing him to come to hysterical conclusions.
Consequently, the community loses valuable time they could have used
to prepare for confrontation with Voldemort.
Nine: Sybill Trelawney exhibits signs of generalized anxiety disorder.
Divination professor, Sybill Trelawney, is always jittery,
thinking of disasterous scenarios, and in fear of being judged.
All red flags of generalized anxiety disorder.
Ten: parasocial, or one way interaction with fictional characters, can help a healing process.
People often state how the deaths, and subsequent grief throughout the Harry Potter series
have helped them deal with their own grief.
Others can describe the series as relatable, comforting, and empowering,
especially with the support of various character quotes.
Which of these Harry Potter-related psychological lessons did you already know about?
And which ones did you find interesting?
Are there any others you found that didn't make our list?
Feel free to share in the comments below.
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