Along with the celebration of the iconic character Harry Potter's birthday, shared with its creator and best-selling author J.K. Rowling, research says that the literature piece encourages readers to be more open-minded towards the LGBT community, immigrants and refugees alike.

A published document filed under the Journal of Applied Social Psychology has presented an argument that reading the 'Harry Potter' books and connecting emotionally to the characters has helped improved students' insights on said groups of people.

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According to the recent research, the book series which comprises of seven books and the world that was created by its author through it is filled with insights and discussions on prejudices and injustice.

A perfect example of this is the slur used in the book, 'mudbloods' which is used by certain characters to refer insultingly to Muggle-borns or non-wizard people.

Studies conducted for said research has subjected Italian fifth graders under a survey that asks them about their perception of immigration, later split into two groups.

The results show that half of the students who filled out the survey cited passages from the 'Harry Potter' books that discussed similar issues. The other half responded with unrelated sections, according to a report given by Pacific Standard.

The children who read the prejudice-related parts of the series and those who are avid readers of the book alike showed "improved attitudes towards immigrants," reports say.

Another study cited 117 Italian high school students who were asked how many of the books in the series they've read and were later questioned about their emotional connections to Harry Potter's character and their opinions regarding homosexuality.

Those who were able to identify with the character show better attitude towards the LGBT community.

In UK, college students were asked about their perception towards refugees and other minorities. Participants of the test were said to be inclined to their hatred towards the villain in the series, Voldemort, and results showed that those who couldn't really make any connections with the character have better attitudes towards said community.

The author of the 'Harry Potter' series also cited before that she has always considered the great wizard Dumbledore to be gay and that the series was an advocacy to end bigotry towards such social issues.

TagsHarry Potter, JK Rowling, Tolerance, minority groups, books