What's with our name? In the 1960's, psychologist Harry Harlow embarked on a series of now-classic studies to understand the role of maternal contact in social and emotional development.
The premise was simple. He removed baby rhesus monkeys from their mother shortly after birth, and had them "raised" by two artificial mothers, one made out of chicken wire and the other made out of soft, warm terrycloth. In one group of monkeys, the wire mother dispensed food while the cloth mother did nothing but be fluffy. One would think that the monkeys would have developed a preference for the wire mother. After all, that's where the food was coming from.
Wrong. They always preferred the cloth mother over the wire mother, especially when scared or stressed out.
For obvious ethical reasons, these studies have not been conducted on humans. But a simple thought experiment may suffice to see if the findings would generalize to human behavior as well.
Who would you prefer?
a. A cloth mother (click here for example).
b. Your Wire Mother
We rest our case.
