What Is Play Anyway?

In this Play Note, we explore what play truly is and how to recognize when someone is genuinely playing. Future Play Notes will delve deeper into how play manifests in and benefits adults and children differently.

Play Is a State of Mind in an Individual

Ask someone to define play, most will respond with an activity – for example playing basketball,  playing catch or gin rummy.  But actually, play is not an activity.  Play is an experience that is pleasurable.  Play is a state of being. Dr. Brown says, when you are truly playing you are in a ‘State of Play’. 

Because we are each unique individuals, the experiences-activities that put us in a play state are different for each of us. Peter Gray, the noted evolutionary psychologist says the following in his book Free to Learn – “Two people could engage in the same activity – say throwing a ball or building something – yet one might be playing while the other is not.  To distinguish between them, we have to observe their expressions and behaviors…,” observe their state of being.

Play is Engaging

An activity-experience that is play is engaging, it holds our attention.  Play can be so engaging that we lose a sense of time e.g., “wow, where did the time go, I had no idea I’ve been doing this for two hours.”  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a distinguished psychologist who immigrated to the US from Hungary, wrote extensively about the concept of “flow,” but he began with research into play. He designed a study to reveal what makes play so enjoyable.  He and his team of graduate students, interviewed 55 chess players, 30 modern dancers, 30 rock climbers, 30 basketball players as well as surgeons, school teachers, and classical musicians. 

Published in 1975, his results provide real world evidence of the experience of play (or flow). Csikszentmihalyi explained that flow occurs when an activity is so inherently enjoyable that you keep doing it for the sake of doing it, without any promise of a reward,  because you love how it makes you feel. And you don’t think about the fact that you love to keep doing it. You just do it.  That is an excellent description of play.

Play Exists Across a Continuum

Professor Gray points out that play is not all or none. “In general, pure play (activity that is 100% playful) is more common in children than adults. In adults, playfulness most often blends with other motives and attitudes having to do with the adults’ responsibilities.” In writing the book from which this material is sourced, Dr. Gray wrote:

“We don’t have metrics for these things, but I would estimate that my behavior in writing this book is about 80 percent play. That percentage varies from time to time as I go along; it decreases when I worry about deadlines or how critics will evaluate it, and it increases when I’m focused only on the current task of researching or writing.”

Other Attributes of Play

A playful activity is one that I freely choose and enjoy, for its own sake. I enjoy doing it and so I am naturally motivated to do it. If we do an activity because someone else wants us to or because we want to impress someone, it is not play – unless we want to do it and enjoy doing it.

In Gray’s book, he states “Play is not neatly defined by a single identifying characteristic.  Rather it is defined as a confluence of several characteristics.” He distilled the work of other play scientists into the following five:

• Play is self-chosen and self-directed.
• The means (or process) of play is valued more than the outcome.
• Play has structure or rules that emanate from the minds of the players.
• Play is imaginative, non-literal, or mentally removed in some way from “real” or “serious” life.
• Play involves an active, alert, but non-stressed frame of mind.

 Play Is Part of Our Biology

Jack Panksepp, a neuroscientist, studied the brain circuits involved in creating emotions; he founded the field of “affective neuroscience.” Panksepp showed that external stimuli (e.g., a friend with a ball) activate “play circuits” in our brain which in turn activate many other brain circuits; together the ‘lighting up’ of all those neurons creates a play state in the person. (NIFPlay is fond of saying, “play lights up the brain.”). His work showed that play is part of our biology and, further, that play is essential for healthy brain development in children and emotional well-being for adults.  

What’s Next?

For more concrete insights, check out a new page on our site, Do You Recognize Play When You See It? In our December Play Note we will focus on specifics of adult play and January’s will cover play in children.

References

Brown, S., & Vaughan, C. (2009). Play: How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates the soul. Penguin.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1975); Play and Intrinsic Rewards, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Volume 15, Issue 3 (July, 1975)

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly and Bennet, Stith (1971); An Exploratory Model of Play, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 73, No. 1 (Feb., 1971)

Gray, P. (2014). Free to Learn: Why unleashing the instinct to play will make our children happier, more self-reliant, and better students for life. Basic Books.

Play Research Pioneers

Johan Huizinga and Karl Groos are two foundational figures in the study of play, and their works have deeply influenced our understanding of play’s social, cultural, and evolutionary roles. Despite their different backgrounds and research focuses, both highlighted the importance of play as an essential and meaningful part of human (and animal) life.

Johan Huizinga: Homo Ludens and the Cultural Significance of Play

Johan Huizinga, a Dutch historian and cultural theorist, is best known for his 1938 book Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. In this influential work, Huizinga argued that play is not merely a trivial pastime but a fundamental aspect of human culture, integral to the development of society, art, law, and religion. For Huizinga, play represents a “free activity” that is consciously distinct from “ordinary” life, characterized by its own rules and boundaries, as well as a sense of joy and freedom.

Huizinga’s central thesis is that play precedes and underpins culture itself. He argued that human civilization emerged and evolved through playful activities, such as storytelling, music, dance, and competition, all of which promoted cooperation and shared identity. He saw play as having a ritualistic, almost sacred quality, bridging the social and the imaginary by creating shared experiences and symbols. His concept of the “magic circle” refers to the boundaries established in play, where the usual social roles are suspended, allowing participants to experience freedom within an alternate reality.

Homo Ludens has had a lasting impact on how we view the function of play, extending its application to fields as diverse as anthropology, philosophy, and education. Huizinga’s work suggests that play is an essential driver of human innovation and that it fosters both social cohesion and individual creativity.

Karl Groos: Play as Preparation for Life

Karl Groos, a German philosopher and psychologist, published two major works on play: The Play of Animals (1896) and The Play of Man (1901). Groos’s theory of play is grounded in evolutionary biology and psychology, and he proposed that play serves an adaptive, preparatory role for animals and humans alike. His concept of “play as preparation” suggests that animals (and humans) engage in play as a way of developing and honing survival skills. For example, young animals play by pouncing, chasing, and wrestling—activities that mirror the skills they will later need for hunting or self-defense.

In The Play of Man, Groos extended his theory to human children, proposing that play activities such as imitation, exploration, and role-play help children develop cognitive, social, and physical skills necessary for adult life. He argued that humans, being more complex than other animals, use play to learn not just survival skills but also cultural, social, and communicative skills. In this way, Groos positioned play as an essential part of child development, facilitating everything from motor skills to problem-solving and empathy.

Groos’s theories were instrumental in shaping early developmental psychology and educational theory, as they emphasized the functional role of play in skill acquisition and socialization. His work laid a foundation for later thinkers like Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, who further explored the developmental and social aspects of play in childhood.

Comparing Huizinga and Groos

While Huizinga focused on play as a cultural and symbolic force, Groos viewed play primarily as an adaptive behavior with evolutionary benefits. Huizinga saw play as an end in itself, a unique phenomenon that enriches human experience and connects individuals to larger social meanings. Groos, in contrast, understood play as a means to an end, serving as a vehicle for learning essential life skills. Despite these differences, both scholars highlighted the universality of play and its intrinsic value across cultures and species, setting the stage for interdisciplinary approaches to studying play in the decades that followed.

Together, Huizinga and Groos created a foundation for understanding play that spans both cultural and biological perspectives, revealing it as a complex and deeply embedded aspect of both human and animal life. Their work encourages us to see play as more than just a recreational activity, recognizing it instead as a vital component of development, social interaction, and cultural expression.