Harry Harlow's monkey attachment studies

Podcast: Witness History · BBC World Service

Opublikowano: 2026-10-13

In the late 1950s, psychologist Harry Harlow conducted a series of experiments on baby rhesus monkeys which would become some of the most controversial in modern science. Using wire models as surrogate mothers, he explored how infants form emotional bonds. His findings challenged the widely held belief in the West that babies form attachments to their mothers primarily because they provide food. His tests reshaped ideas about love, attachment and child development. Using archive interviews, Reena Stanton-Sharma tells the story behind these contentious tests and explores their legacy. Witness History is a short...