Your Voice: Importance of diversity and inclusion; decoding the empathy gap (long letters)

I am more than honoured that I had the opportunity to attend the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summit 2024. This event covered several critical social topics ranging from inclusive language to mental health and neurodivergence. The summit, organised by the South China Morning Post, kicked off with a panel discussion on how speaking inclusive language matters.

The first thing that came to my mind when I heard the term “inclusive language” was the idea of accepting diversity and developing a respectful communication method. During the discussion, I heard numerous definitions and examples of what “inclusive language” means. This includes commonly used terms in Hong Kong, such as leng jai, meaning handsome boy, and leng neui, meaning pretty girl, to intentional terms that neglect certain aspects of cultural inclusion.

Let’s look at a term we often hear: daai lou, meaning big boss – is it inclusive? We seldom notice that the term itself is gender specific and is a generic masculine word that may sound offensive in certain circumstances.

Hong Kong ethnic minority children with special needs face delayed diagnosis

The panellists shared how they think inclusive language policies can be implemented to eliminate concepts like microaggression and gender-specific language. This led me to ponder whether education-related policies can be implemented to effectuate change in the way of communication – can we start from the students’ level to incorporate inclusive language in our daily lives?

Other than that, the discussion panel on mental health led by some inspiring individuals piqued my interest. Hong Kong saw a large number of students attempt suicide recently, and the city’s happiness index dropped from 7.26 to 6.57 in just a year. Why do people in Hong Kong have exceptionally poor mental well-being, particularly in comparison to other places that are equally competitive?

Many companies, NGOs and schools have targeted mental health issues through well-being programmes. However, a recent Oxford University study had the headline – “well-being programmes do not work.”

It is evident that we have to strive for a shift in our long-term solutions towards the poor mental health of citizens. This could be done by nurturing and cultivating positive mindsets through interactive activities or encouraging exercises to produce more “feel good” hormones. As one of the speakers said, “The solution to mental health isn’t a broad blanket.” There is no one size that fits all, but instead, it should be personalised and specific.

From a student’s perspective, this proves to be even more accurate. Schools now offer so-called stress relief and mental well-being programmes, but eventually, they require the active participation of students to speak up and share their own stories for them to be helpful. Mental health isn’t something that can be solved just by one mental well-being programme, and the key to mental peace is communication.

The two panel discussions may seem to have totally different themes and topics. Still, they are actually interrelated – being inclusive fosters better mental well-being by providing a more positive environment. To encompass inclusive language and to nurture mental well-being, one should start from small acts in daily life.

Your Voice: The social struggles of ethnic minorities (short letters)

Charmaine Wong Cheuk-ying, St Paul’s Co-educational College

Imagine an old lady clutching her chest in pain and fainting on the ground in one graceful swoon. When you passed your first aid exam with flying colours, you flawlessly performed CPR on a dummy. However, when this scenario happens before you, your palms get sweaty, and you freeze in a dazed state of mind, not knowing what to do.

And that’s when you are trapped in a different visceral state – the gap between our behaviours when there is a change in the temperature of our emotional state.

The empathy gap, also known as the hot-cold empathy gap, refers to two visceral states – hot and cold. The hot state refers to our mental state influenced by hunger, sexual desire, fear, exhaustion, and other strong emotions. The cold mental state refers to being under minimal emotional influence, which makes us more rational and logical.

Consciousness Festival promotes empathy through workshops, inclusive movie screening

However, when a dreaded scenario comes knocking on our door, fear and anxiety, our hot emotions, might make us behave very differently. In fact, brain scans suggest that our brains just don’t fire up the same way when we make hypothetical decisions. When faced with a hot choice, the brain’s reward centre becomes more active. In other words, the empathy gap is an obstacle to making the best decision.

So, how do we minimise the probability of rashly irrational decisions being made? One multinational corporation that leveraged the understanding of the empathy gap to help its business is Starbucks.

To counter situations where the staff may get impatient with customers, the retail coffee giant devised a simple solution – “preloaded decision-making”. They added an extra page at the end of every employee handbook with queues like “When a customer yells at me, I will ... ”. The employee would then write in advance what their response would be to such situations during training, allowing them to plan their response with a relaxed mindset.

All this leads to the hot question currently: should artificial intelligence replace our imperfect decision-making skills? Today, AI chatbots operate on algorithms and data patterns stemming from ourselves and are programmed with empathetic phrases to create a more humanlike interaction. However, it lacks the intuitive understanding that underpins genuine authenticity.

Alexander Pope once said, “To err is human, to forgive divine.” We, humans, may not be perfectly rational, yet our “errs” make up a beautifully intriguing cacophony of ignorant minds – a blunt reflection of the exquisite imperfection of human civilisation.