Animal Studies of Attachment

Research on attachment has not been limited to human participants. Some of the most influential studies in attachment theory were conducted using animal subjects — particularly geese and rhesus monkeys. These studies have provided crucial insights into the nature of attachment, the mechanisms underlying bond formation, and the consequences of disrupted early relationships. However, they also raise significant ethical and methodological questions about generalising animal findings to humans.

Key Definition: Imprinting is a form of attachment observed in some species (especially birds) in which the young animal forms an attachment to the first moving object it encounters during a critical period shortly after birth or hatching.

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Lorenz's Research on Imprinting (1935)

Konrad Lorenz (1935) conducted a classic study of imprinting using greylag geese. He divided a clutch of goose eggs into two groups. One group was hatched naturally by the mother goose, while the other group was placed in an incubator so that Lorenz himself was the first moving object the goslings encountered.

Procedure and Findings