I wrote a piece for the Guardian a little while back about how I believe reality TV (for the most part) shows us people’s true selves better than real life. My central premise was that in normal life, we have all manner of niceties, rehearsed empathy and conditioned responses.

Most normal interactions run to a kind of script, whether it's at work, socially or even with strangers. Abnormal situations, however, remove our ability to fall back on script and thereby remove the filters that overlay our nature.

(You could of course argue that a person's filtered personality is just as true a reflection of themselves because what we choose to filter is a matter of judgement.)

This abnormal situation we're all in now is showing us who people really are. There’s no script. Most of us have never been here before. Whether it’s the people in your inner circle, acquaintances, strangers, or people in public life, we're seeing who people really are.

Who steps up? Who tries to help others? Who fights to survive? Who leads? Who stands on the sidelines sniping? Who shows compassion? Who becomes more openly racist? Who uses crisis to lie and grift? Who uses it to push their own agenda? Who are we really when we're off script?

Take a look around you right now, because you're able to see people you might think you know in ways you've never seen them before. It might be useful to remind yourself who was who when this is all over.