Colleagues Say World’s Top Empathy Researcher Bullied Them

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From Science: “Tania Singer, a celebrated neuroscientist and director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, is known as one of the world’s foremost experts on empathy. In her research, she has sought to demonstrate that meditation can make people more kind and caring. The title of a profile of Singer written by this reporter in 2013 summed up her public image: Concentrating on Kindness.

But inside her lab, it was a very different story, eight former and current colleagues say in interviews with Science. The researchers, all but one of whom insisted on remaining anonymous because they feared for their careers, describe a group gripped by fear of their boss. ‘Whenever anyone had a meeting with her there was at least an even chance they would come out in tears,’ one colleague says.”

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4 COMMENTS

  1. These anonymous denunciations are a problem. Imagine that an MIA editor is accused of harassment by anonymous people, and that these denunciations are widely disseminated in the press. In reality, these anonymous people could be totally foreign to MIA, and interested in sowing discord within MIA, or messing up MIA’s reputation.

    MIA should make it a rule never to peddle rumors.

    Testis unus, testis nullus.

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  2. Anonymous sources seem to be targeting her for destruction. given how vicious human beings can be to each other in general…especially in an academic setting, when someone gets media attention, moves up the totem pole…

    it would be…well…considerate of Science to think about how this sort of coverage might ruin this individual’s career. Having said that… as someone who survived Mental Health, Inc. — which is filled with “empaths” who turn out to be vicious bullies and occasionally criminals, too (fraud, for instance) — I obviously suspect that these anonymous tipsters are simply seizing an opportunity to tell the truth, at long last.

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  3. Look carefully at Tania Singer’s photo. She uses the same hand gestures that Trump does!
    And, she has no children of her own, does she?
    Whether it’s fair or not, I don’t care. But it is my opinion that she is most probably very verbally and emotionally abusive behind closed doors.
    In public, she and her lawyer will only ever deny the most credible charges.
    But she’s probably not homicidal, so that’s some good thing, at least….
    Yes, I’d say Tania Singer is a bully, which is what the article is saying, too….

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