German scientist Tania Singer is a world expert on empathy. Her colleagues say she’s an intimidating bully
‘Whenever anyone had a meeting with her there was at least an even chance they would come out in tears’
If there is anyone who knows the potentially devastating effects of hurt feelings, it is Tania Singer.
The 48-year-old German neuroscientist has spent her career looking at the physical, social, even economic benefits of making people more empathetic. She has mapped the brains of people watching their loved ones experiencing pain, for example, and sought scientific answers to questions about the roots of good and evil that have puzzled humans since the dawn of sentience.
One of Singer’s goals, she wrote in a 2013 book about compassion training, was to “support the development of a more caring and sustainable society … With this book, we aspire to bring more attention to compassion in our society. ”
But recently, the attention has focused on Singer’s lab in Leipzig, Germany – and what former colleagues say is a pattern of bullying and intimidation from one of the world’s foremost researchers on empathy.
The complaints – from eight current and former colleagues who told Science Magazine this month that the bad behaviour dates back several years – painted a picture of a work environment so dire that the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Singer agreed to a year-long sabbatical to “cool down” the situation.
People were terrified. They were really, really afraid of telling her about their pregnancies
