Study finds 'Potter' can be addicting

As if anyone needed to tell us this, MTV published an article earlier today about research concluding that the Harry Potter series can in fact be addicting. The story notes:

In a just-finished study that's being submitted to the Journal of General Psychology, psych professor Dr. Jeffrey Rudski and two of his undergrad students at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, report that they found characteristics of addiction in at least 10 percent of the 4,000 Potter fans they polled online.

While the doctor discusses that the end of the series did have serious withdrawal symptons for some, likening it to going off a drug "cold turkey," he also said he chose to do the study on the end of the boy wizard's saga over the conclusion of the hit series The Sopranos because of his 15-year old daughter and the things she's taken from it:

"She's picked up guitar because she wants to be in a wizard-rock band," he said. "She's studying Latin because she wants to better understand J.K. Rowling's choices of names for her characters. She started reading Stephen King and John Irving because they spoke with Rowling at Radio City two summers ago." If that's being an addict, he's down with it.

Posted by Micah on Feb 22nd | 215 Comments