PD Dr. Olga Klimecki

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About Olga

Privat-docent Olga Klimecki, PhD is a neuroscientist and psychologist. She is currently interim chair of Social Psychology at the Universität der Bundeswehr, Germany.

She holds a PhD (Dr. phil., summa cum laude) from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and a Dr. rer. nat. habil. from Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, where she was guest professor in Psychology in 2020 and 2021 and interim professor of Biological Psychology in 2024 and 2025. From 2013 to 2020 she worked at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, first as a Marie-Curie post-doctoral fellow and then as Maître-Assistante (Oberassistentin).

Her research focuses on the promotion of mental and physical health and the promotion of good interpersonal and intergroup relationships across the lifespan. More specifically, Olga and her team use randomized controlled studies to test the causal impact of behavioural, cognitive, and emotional interventions. Their work also studies bio-psycho-social mechanisms of action with a focus on brain functions and connectivity, emotions, as well as interpersonal and intergroup behaviour.

Olga (co-) authored over 80 publications. In recognition of her research on neural plasticity and conflict resolution, Olga has received several grants and awards, including the Early Career Award from the Society for Social Neuroscience in Washington DC, a Marie Curie Fellowship, and a Horizon2020 grant from the European Commission.

Olga is co-prinicpal investigator of the longest meditation study to date – the Medit-Ageing / Silver Health study which was funded with a total of 7 Mio EUR. She has been leading research on conflict resolution in different countries since 2013.

Olga’s work is broadly covered in national and international media, including arte, BBC, die Zeit, Spiegel, the independent, RTS, and ZDF.

Key Publications:

Cernadas Curotto, P., Sander, D., Halperin, E., & Klimecki, O., (2023) Getting closer: Compassion training increases feelings of closeness toward a disliked person. Scientific Reports. [IF 4.6; OA]

Cernadas Curotto, P.,  Sander, D., d’Argembeau, A., Klimecki, O. (2022). Back to the future: a way to increase prosocial behavior. PLoS One. [IF 3.8; OA]

Bogacz, F., Pun, T., & Klimecki, O. M. (2020). Improved conflict resolution in romantic couples in mediation compared to negotiation. Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, 7: 131. [IF 3.5; OA]

Klimecki, O., Vétois, M., & Sander, D. (2020). The impact of empathy and perspective-taking instructions on proponents and opponents of immigration. Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, 7: 91. [IF 3.5; OA]

Rafi, H., Bogacz, F., Sander, D., & Klimecki, O.M. (2020). Impact of Couple Conflict and Mediation on How Romantic Partners Are Seen: an fMRI study. Cortex, 130, 302-317. [IF 4.28]

Klimecki, O. (2019). The role of empathy and compassion in conflict resolution. Emotion Review, 11(4), 310–325. [IF 4.07] 

Klimecki, O.M., Sander, D., & Vuilleumier, P. (2018). Distinct brain areas involved in anger versus punishment during social interactions. Scientific Reports, 8, 10556. [IF: 5.58; OA; Part of Top 100 in Neuroscience]

Klimecki, O.M., Mayer, S.V., Jusyte, A., Scheeff, J., & Schönenberg, M. (2016). Empathy promotes altruistic behavior in economic interactions. Scientific Reports, 6, 31961. [IF 5.58; OA]

Klimecki, O.M., Vuilleumier, P., & Sander, D. (2016). The impact of emotions and empathy-related traits on punishment behavior: Introduction and Validation of the Inequality Game. PLoS One, 11(3): e0151028. [IF 3.23; OA]

Klimecki, O.M. (2015). The Plasticity of Social Emotions. Social Neuroscience. 10, 466-473. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2015.1087427 [IF 3.65]

Singer, T., & Klimecki, O.M. (2014). Empathy and Compassion. Current Biology, 24, R875-R878. [IF 10.83; OA]

Klimecki, O., Leiberg, S., Ricard, M., & Singer, T. (2014).Differential Pattern of Functional Brain Plasticity after Compassion and Empathy Training. Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9, 873–879. [IF 7.37; OA]

Bernhardt, B.*, Klimecki, O.*, Leiberg, S., & Singer T. (2014). Structural Covariance Networks of the Dorsal Anterior Insula Predict Females’ Individual Differences in Empathic Responding. Cerebral Cortex, 24, 2189-98. [IF 8.67; OA] *shared first authorship

Klimecki,O., Leiberg, S., Lamm, C., & Singer, T. (2013). Functional neural plasticity and associated changes in positive affect after compassion training. Cerebral Cortex, 23, 1552–1561. [IF 8.67; OA]

Leiberg, S., Klimecki, O., & Singer, T. (2011). Short-term compassion training increases prosocial behavior in a newly developed prosocial game. PLoS One, 6, e17798. [IF 3.23; OA]

For a full list of publications, see: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=QKjZBUIAAAAJ&hl=de&oi=ao

HSU

Letzte Änderung: 11. März 2025