Contact comfort, not feeding, determines how monkeys respond to stress

Evidence

In another study, the monkeys were separated; one group was fed by wire mothers while another group was fed by the terry cloth mothers. Although both groups of monkeys drank equal amounts of milk and grew at the same rate, they responded very differently in novel and frightening situations. When wandering around their cages and unexpectedly exposed to a mechanical teddy bear beating a drum, the monkeys with the soft terry cloth mother scampered to her and clung to her tenaciously. Seemingly comforted, they then ventured forth and explored their surroundings. Interestingly, the other monkeys, rather than making their way back to “Mother Metallica,” hurled themselves on the ground, rocked back and forth, or groped themselves and screamed in obvious distress—very much as the neglected children in the Romanian orphanages behaved. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 105

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the Romanian orphan distress behaviors just described—unified evidence for the security-mother bond.

Related

• Physical contact comfort, not feeding, is the root of parental love (similarity 0.82)