In order to better understand human emotional attachment, I investigated the work of Harry Harlow, a prominent American psychologist in the 1950’s, who demonstrated the importance of tangible affection in social and cognitive development. Harlow studied infant rhesus monkeys to analyze the development of emotional attachment in infants. At the time, the commonly held theoretical position was that affection is an innate drive developed through the repeated association of the mother with reduction of the primary biological drives, particularly hunger and thirst. Harlow questioned this hypothesis, and focused instead upon the influence that bodily contact plays in attachment formation. Through his experiments, Harlow discovered that contact comfort was the overwhelmingly important variable in forming a bond between the infant and its mother, rather than nourishment.

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Harry F. Harlow and Robert R. Zimmermann. "The Development of Affectional Responses in Infant Monkeys," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 102, No. 5 (Oct. 20, 1958), pp. 501-509