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[–] 6 points 16 hours ago*

Actually, Harry Harlow did an experiment back in the 50s to test this theory. He took some baby rhesus monkeys and separated them from their mothers. Then he gave them some artificial mothers. One mother was a metal wire doll of a monkey. One mother was a cloth doll of a monkey. One nice to touch, one unpleasant to touch. Then he studied how the baby monkeys formed attachments to their doll mothers.

He found that even if the wire mother gives milk and the cloth mothers don't, the babies still prefer the cloth mothers that are nice to touch. They would cuddle with the cloth mothers and seek them out for comfort when scared. This proved that touch is a more important factor in attachment than food.

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