Researcher, Author, Speaker
Tania Singer
Prof. Dr. Tania Singer is a social neuroscientist and psychologist and world expert on empathy and compassion. She has a passion for creating bridges between fields that typically never interact such as linking neuroscience with economics, science with arts or science with spirituality.
“A lack of compassion is arguably the cause of humankind’s biggest failures.”
Learning from contemplative traditions from the East, she has initiated and headed one of the largest meditation-based secular mental training studies on compassion, the ReSource project. Linking such findings to the field of economics, she developed a “caring economics” approach, developing new models of economy based on care and social cohesion.
Throughout her life she has explored how inner change can bring about societal change putting science in the service of societal transformation.

Building bridges between fields
Fields of Expertise
In her scientific exploration, Tania has always been passionate about creating bridges between fields that typically rarely interact, such as linking social psychology with neuroscience, neuroscience with economics, science with arts, or science with contemplative wisdom traditions from the East.

For more social competencies, resilience and less stress in everyday school life
The EduSocial Project
The Edu:Social School Project of the Social Neuroscience Lab of the Max Planck Society investigates the influence of online socio-emotional training programs in the context of schools. Building on previous projects such as the CovSocial project, which showed that 10 weeks of online training in mindfulness exercises or in new socio-emotional exercises with partners, the so-called dyads, could strengthen socio-emotional skills such as empathy, (self-)compassion as well as resilience and mental health, we now want to bring these scientifically proven training programs into the school context.
In the first phase of our study, we are now primarily looking for teachers from Berlin who would like to participate in our training program from October 2024. Here we will focus on the socio-emotional dyad programs, in which teachers will practice 15-minute dyads daily over 10 weeks via an app to train their social skills and resilience with each other.
In the second phase, planned for 2025, we will involve teachers from all over Germany.
If you are interested in participating in this exciting and innovative project, you can also attend our digital information events with our team for more information. Dates and further details can be found on our website.
For participation, please register on our Edu:Social School Website

The ReConnect! Courses are based on Prof. Dr. Tania Singer’s 25+ years of psychological and social neuroscience research on the effects of different types of mental trainings on brain, mind and behavior. The goal now is, to translate this research into practice and allow society to profit from these precious science-based mental training programs and the associated benefits of boosting empathy, (self)compassion, tolerance towards others, mental health and resilience while reducing stress and loneliness and improving social cohesion and connections.
ReConnect with yourself, the other and society at large
These courses are called ReConnect! as the goal is to reconnect participants with themselves, others and society at large.
As Tania is multi-lingual, she gives ReConnect! Masterclasses and ReConnect! Journeys in different languages such as French, German or English.
The ReConnect! formats are adapted for the use in different domains of society: education, healthcare, business or for society at large. Therefore ReConnect! courses have different specification such as ReConnect! in Society, ReConnect! in Healthcare, ReConnect! in Education or ReConnect! in Leadership.
Furthermore, there are different ReConnect! formats with different intensities and topics: ReConnect! Matserclasses and ReConnect! Journeys.
You can find more information about ReConnect! courses here

3.5 days intensive meditation retreats in silence
ReConnect! Masterclasses
The ReConnect! Masterclasses start with a very intensive 3.5 days meditation retreat in silence in a beautiful retreat center in nature. A large ReConnect! teacher team lead by Tania Singer guide a group of about 60-70 participants through deep inner processes, supported by scientific talks, instructions into many different meditations, different types of partner-based Dyads, sharing circles and group dialogues.
After this retreat, participants engage in 8 weeks of daily dyadic practice with a partner in their everyday lifes. This daily practice is supported by weekly 1.5 hours online coaching sessions lead by Tania Singer and her expert Dyad-teacher team.
The ReConnect! Masterclasses consist of a good balance between teaching theoretical knowledge in psycho-biology and direct practice with everyday applications.
You can find more information about past ReConnect! Masterclasses here.

Introduction into the ReConnect Dyadpractice
ReConnect! Journeys
The ReConnect! Journeys start with a 1.5 day long live event in a beautiful location in the center of Berlin. This event is lead by Tania Singer and her ReConnect team and includes a large group of 120 participants, who are introduced during these days in the Dyadwork.
After this kick-off event in person, participants continue their journey with daily Dyads over 8 week, accompagnied by 1.5 hour online coaching sessions in smaller groups lead by expert ReConnect Dyad teachers.
Journeys come in different colors covering different themes with specific types of Dyads such as the Empathy-Dyad, the Perspective-Dyad or the Shame-Dyad. Each of these Dyads cultivate specific capacities. Depending on whether the focus of a Journey is the cultivation of compassion, perspective taking or self-compassion, the specific 8-week Journey will teach participants a specific Dyad practice and will be therefore called Compassion Journey or Perspective Journey etc.
You find more information about ReConnect! Journeys here and below about the next German Compassion Journey in Berlin (in German language):

About Tania
Tania has a rich, colourful and international biography characterised by many moves within Germany and Europe. Below are some keywords of her most important academic positions.
A more personal biography as well as her full academic CV can be found here.
- Studies of Psychology and Media Counselling at the University of Marburg and Technical University of Berlin.
- PhD in Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin.
- Postdoctoral years at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging & Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College, London.
- Assistant and full Professorships in Social Neuroscience & Inaugural Chair in Neuroeconomics & Co-Director of the Laboratory for Social and Neural System Research at the University of Zürich.
- Directorship, Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig.
- Scientific Head, Social Neuroscience Lab, Max Planck Society, Berlin.
Tania is now head of the Social Neuroscience Lab of the Max Planck Society in Berlin. She investigates Human Social Behaviour as well as social emotions such as empathy and compassion and their trainability.
She is founder and Principal Investigator of the ReSource project a large-scale longitudinal study with more than 300 participants and 90 different measures on the effects of meditation-based mental training on brain plasticity, mental and physical health, and pro-social behaviour. The ReSource project has taken more than 10 years to be developed and conducted, generating more than 40 peer-reviewed scientific papers to date (see here for the ReSource webpage).
She further holds a cooperation with the macroeconomist Prof. Dennis Snower on the topic of Caring Economics. Together they explore how biology and psychology can inform new economic models and decision-making.
Currently, Tania is heading the CovSocial Project, a study that investigates on the changes of vulnerability, social cohesion and resilience during the SARS-COV-19 pandemic in Berlin. In its second phase, the study investigates the differential efficiency of two 10-week online mental training programs, a mindfulness and a socio-emotional partner-based dyadic program, on mental health, stress and loneliness reduction as well as boosting resilience and social skills.
Tania has further published her findings in more than 150 high-impact peer-reviewed journals and book chapters, and has given several hundred keynote lectures on the stages of many prestigious institutions such as the World Economic Forum, MIT, Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, ETH and at many global companies.
Throughout her career, Tania has further engaged in art and science cooperation. Among others, she cooperates with the artist Olafur Eliasson, and together with him she has produced a movie and a freely downloadable eBook on compassion.
In the context of her longtime board membership of the Mind and Life Institute, she helped organise together with Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard two large-scale conferences with the Dalai Lama, in 2010 in Zürich and in 2016 in Brussels. These conferences were published in two books, “Caring Economics” and “Power and Care”.
To help transfer her scientific knowledge and science-based mental training programs into society, Tania is also giving workshops and ReConnect! Masterclasses and ReConnect! Journeys for different domains such as health-care, education or business and leadership. These Masterclasses include 3.5 days intensive retreats as well as 8-week daily partner-based dyadic practice in your everyday life supported by weekly online coaching sessions with professional teachers.
Latest News & Upcoming Events
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NYAS Review
April 04, 2024 – 25+ Years of Tania Singer’s Social Neuroscience research including the ReSource, CovSocial and Edu:Social School Project and her recent Dyad-work are reviewed in this NYAS review article.
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Essay for Mind and Life Institute Insights Series
January 12, 2024 – Contemplative Dyads Training the mind and deepening our connection through relational practices.
Recent Talks & Podcasts
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The Mindfulness Podcast
December 12, 2023 – In this podcast Tania Singer and David Black talk about the CovSocial project and specifically explore results comparing mindfulness training against a dyad interventions regarding thought and affect patterns.
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Global Joy Summit with His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Tania Singer together with Richard Davidson took part in the Special Session Discussion on Altruism as a Source of Inner Strength as part of the Global Joy Summit, Nov. 13 – 16. 2022
Latest Scientific Publications
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Singer, T.
A neuroscience perspective on the plasticity of the social and relational brain. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, S. 1 – 23. (2025)
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Matthäus, H., Heim, C., Voelkle, M. & Singer T.
Reducing Neuroendocrine Psychosocial Stress Response Through Socio-emotional Dyadic but not Mindfulness Online Training. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 15. (2024)
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Godara, M. & Singer T.
10-Week Trajectories of Candidate Psychological Processes Differentially Predict Mental Health Gains from Online Dyadic Versus Mindfulness Interventions: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 13(11), 3295. (2024)