The Experiment Nobody Will Ever Repeat

Nobody is ever going to be allowed to run this experiment again. In 2000, three American researchers went into the state institutions of Bucharest, enrolled 136 infants and toddlers, and let a lottery decide which of them moved into a family and which stayed behind. It wasn't cruelty. It was the only way to finally answer a question science had circled for decades: does being held, comforted, and loved in infancy actually change how a brain develops? Or is food, shelter, and basic care enough? The results reshaped how we understand attachment, child development, and the first years of life — and why no ethics board would ever approve this study today. #psychology #science #childdevelopment