Human life-history patterns are characterized by slow maturation, long parental dependency, longevity, and low number of offspring. These developmental peculiarities determine the amount of parental investment in offspring and mating effort, and assign an adaptive role to postmenopausal women. Hence evolution has produced specific adaptations pertaining to the relationship of human infants with their primary caregivers, subsumed under the term ‘attachment’. The way attachment patterns or ‘styles’ develop during early infancy coin the child’s view of the world in terms of the emotional availability and trustworthiness of others. Harsh environmental conditions during infancy promote insecure attachment styles and a ‘faster’ life-history strategy, including earlier sexual maturation and sexual activity and less parental investment in own offspring. The opposite is more likely to emerge when children grow up in secure conditions with responsive and emotionally available caregivers. These developmental trajectories have profound implications for social interaction and stress-regulation abilities.