It goes without saying that 2020 has been an enigma to many. We’ve all heard the word “unprecedented” many times and perhaps we even let ourselves indulge in the fantasy that when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, the unpredictable nature of this somewhat dystopian year will be over and 2021 will bring us a more familiar sense of stability, certainty and normality. As the year is drawing to a close and we adjust to the slower pace of lockdown 2.0, I have been using this as an opportunity to reflect on the ebbs and flows of political, social, economic and health crises that have occurred. Within all of this, something that has continually stood out to me is that despite us all being affected by everything that has been happening, our society seems to be extremely divided on so many pertinent issues.

I believe that in part this is associated with psychological processes, where one’s political affiliation has influenced one’s beliefs about social policies and race relations beyond rationality. The concept of groupthink, first studied by psychologist Irving Janis in 1972, describes the psychological process whereby an individual conforms to a consensus while forgoing their personal beliefs. This strengthens our alignment with other people we share ideas and goals with, but it can have the harmful effects of warping our own perspectives to prioritise our own group regardless of the cost to the outsiders and, perhaps on an unconscious level, to ourselves.

Racism against Black people has been a central feature in many of this year’s most prominent crises yet continues to be largely unaddressed. This has led me to wonder what factors contribute to this blind spot, a blind spot that damages the physical, psychological and socioeconomic outcomes of Black people in the UK. An important contributor seems to be a lack of what US psychologist Yu-Wei Wang and her colleagues term ethnocultural empathy.

This is the ability to take the perspective and share the feelings of a person from a different ethnic group and to communicate these shared experiences to them. An individual’s capacity for ethnocultural empathy can be influenced by their own experiences of people from different cultures as well as the stories that they are told about people who have different racial, cultural or ethnic identities. It is distinct from general non-specific forms of empathy, with a key difference being the nature of the consequences when it is lacking. When someone lacks empathy for another person, this may only affect the individual who is not being empathised with. They may be left feeling invalidated, devalued and misunderstood, which can then have a secondary impact on self-esteem and emotional wellbeing. However, to lack ethnocultural empathy is to lack the ability to hold in mind the context and circumstances of a large group of people, resulting in increased prejudice, negative stereotyping and discriminatory actions. In addition, the people within that large group may also suffer the same individualised effects on self-worth and psychological wellbeing.

As we enter the new year, with the benefit of hindsight, how does this lack of ethnocultural empathy truly begin to shift? Of course there is the personal work that people can do, as suggested in many discussions during the reignition of the Black Lives Matter movement. Educating oneself about how racism is maintained while also learning about the journeys and histories of people from different racial, cultural and ethnic groups is certainly a great start. However, let’s be realistic – the people who need to do this work the most might be least likely to engage in personal development and in a time where we are all trying to manage the burdens associated with the ever-evolving restrictions that we currently face, there may simply be less cognitive capacity to be able to do this educational personal work.

This is where I see the creative arts being essential. At a time where finding the energy to engage in topics that use the imagination can be challenging, the creators of films, artwork, theatre and music do a lot of the hard work for us. They bring the stories of journeys and histories to us in a time-limited format that allows us to indulge at a level that’s available to us at any given time, offering a structure within which to feel contained. Through the use of imagery and sound, they can convey concepts that words on a page sometimes do not. When trying to foster a complex emotion such as empathy, a multisensory portrayal can enable that personal connection to Black people that we seem to have been missing so widely throughout society as of late. Because of this, the creative arts hold so much power, yet with power comes responsibility.

In the case of reconciling the lack of ethnocultural empathy that perpetuates racism against Black people, I suggest that the responsibility is to retell stories in a way that humanises Black people, in a way that expands the narrative beyond criminality, objectification and hypersexualisation, in a way that does not rely on glorification and superhuman characteristics before they are deemed likable and worth developing. Ultimately, in a way that acknowledges the beauty in diversity and ethnic difference while reminding the audience that Black people are normal humans too, who enjoy normal human things, so much so that to watch them is to also watch a little bit of you regardless of the colour of your skin. Once we can see the difference in our physical appearance, in our heritage and in our cultural values, and still find shared moments of sadness, joy, anger and love, then we can say with confidence that we are taking steps towards a society where we can really be with each other in humanity instead of division.

Dr Samantha Rennalls is a clinical psychologist with a PhD in psychology and neuroscience