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The Gua Experiment- How 2 Scientists Learned Raising a Chimp With Their Own Baby Was a Bad Idea
In the early 1930s, married psychologists conducted an in depth and lengthy examination to see if a human infant and their chimpanzee counterpart could learn from and impact the others development — it did not end well
Scientists are naturally curious, coming up with a myriad of questions for which they want to find answers. Sometimes, in their pursuit of clarity and truth, they will use themselves to further their experimentation. There are also cases of those who may go further, including a pair of married researchers from nearly a century ago, who decided to raise a baby chimpanzee with their own infant son to see how they adapted and impacted each other. The resulting Gua Experiment ended after nearly a year due to the alarming results.
The Gua experiment was conducted in the early 1930s by psychologists Winthrop Niles Kellogg and his wife Luella. Neasrly a century later, it remains one of the most controversial studies in the history of comparative psychology. Seeking to explore the boundaries between genetics and environment in the development of intelligence and behavior, they attempted to raise a chimpanzee…
