Brain Rules for Baby (John Medina) / quote 9 of 91
Harlow's monkeys wanted comfort, not food
Harlow’s classic attachment experiments involved two of these iron maidens—doll-like structures serving as maternal stand-ins. One was made of harsh wire, the other of soft terry cloth. He took newly born rhesus monkeys, removed them from their biological mothers, and placed them into cages containing both dolls. There are many variations on this experiment, but the initial finding was striking. The cold wire doll provided food, delivered from an attached bottle. The soft terry-cloth doll did not. Nonetheless, the animals greatly preferred the cloth mom. The baby would feed from the wire mom, but do so while clinging tightly to the cloth mom. If the babies were placed in an unfamiliar room, they clung tightly to the cloth surrogate until they felt secure enough to explore the cage on their own. If placed in that same room without the cloth mother, the animals froze in terror, then went crying and screaming, running from one object to another, seemingly looking for their lost mother. The preference was the same no matter how many times the experiment was done or in what variation. These experiments are heartbreaking to watch—I’ve seen old films of this stuff—and the conclusions are unforgettable. It wasn’t the presence of food that telegraphed reassurance to these little ones, a behavioral idea prevalent at the time. It was the presence or absence of a safe harbor. Human babies, complex as they are, are looking for the same thing.