HARRY HARLOW

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• Born October 31, 1905 Fairfield, Iowa
• Died December 6, 1981 (aged 76) Tucson, Arizona

Harry Frederick Harlow was an American psychologist best known for his maternal-separation, dependency needs, and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys, which demonstrated the importance of care-giving and companionship in social and cognitive development.

He conducted most of his research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow worked for a time with him.

Harlow's experiments were controversial; they included rearing infant macaques in isolation chambers for up to 24 months, from which they emerged severely disturbed. Some researchers cite the experiments as a factor in the rise of the animal liberation movement in the United States.

Many of his experiments would be considered unethical today, and their nature and Harlow's descriptions of them heightened awareness of the treatment of laboratory animals and thus contributed to today's ethics regulations. Gene Sackett of the University of Washington in Seattle, who was one of Harlow's doctoral students, has stated that he believes the animal liberation movement in the U.S. was born as a result of Harlow's experiments.