Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Psychology Analysis

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the infamous battle between Harry Potter and Voldemort comes to a head for the final time with only one of them left standing. The two hour film is full of non-stop action, seat-gripping suspense, heart-stopping moments, and tissue-grabbing scenes; leaving the viewer emotionally drained with some sense of hard-fought, hard-won peace. But beneath the special effects and dramatic background music lies a plot that is rich and teeming with situations that are Social Psychology textbook definition perfect. The three social psychology concepts that stuck out the most during the movie were the use of the fundamental attribution error, conformity, and willingness to help. Snape, Voldemort’s second-in-command,

Harry’s fighters, however, are but a fraction of that size and admit they are counting on a hope and a prayer to defeat their opponents. How did Voldemort, such an evil person at heart, amass so many followers when Harry and his cause could not? Conformity. The power of social influence is strong, especially when there is a particularly compelling individual calling the shots. A leader like Voldemort, who is both authoritative in nature and insistent about people believing in his message, is a very powerful force of social influence. In addition to social influence, the blanket of disappointment is a smothering one, and people hate to be trapped underneath it, even if it is created by someone like Voldemort. The pressure of letting others down can sometimes trump desires to stand up for personal views. And even if people come to the conclusion that they have conformed to the wrong norm, in this case joining Voldemort, they are more likely to justify their actions so they do not feel cognitive dissonance over what they have done. Conformity, especially in such a life or death situation, is a very difficult to thing to fight, and the people who joined Voldemort succumbed to its

Out of the three particularly prevalent concepts in the movie, the first was the use of Snape and the fundamental attribution error concerning his motives and the connection to his personality. Conformity causing so many people to jump into Voldemort’s ship and follow him was the next. The willingness of all the people who fought alongside Harry to defeat Voldemort once and for all rounds out the list. All of these examples show that even magical lands fall prey to the powerfulness of Social Psychology