In her article The Ethics of Close Reading: Close Encounters she compares our polarization, totalization, and projection of books to our encounters with others. According to Gallop’s theory, as we read we pick out those things that confirm our own prejudges and in doing so we instill those prejudges further into our belief system. However, when we use what Gallop refers to as “Close Reading” or “looking at what is actually on the page, reading the text itself…” we are listening with an open mind and when we are able to do that we challenge our preconceived ideas. Slow reading allows us to experience our encounters with others and observe those things that directly contradict our own prejudges and …show more content…
They help us to reduce the amount of processing our brains need to do when we meet people. Unfortunately, this can lead to social categorization or assuming a range of characteristics and abilities to an entire group which can lead to an “us and them” mentality. This happens when the “us” becomes the in-group and “them” becomes the out-group. This concurs with Gallops article stating that we categorize people as being the same as us (belonging to the in-group) or as being different from us (belonging to the out-group). Social identity theorist believe that members of the in-group will seek out negative aspect of others to enhance their self-image. We tend to exaggerate differences between groups just as we exaggerate similarities within