ABSTRACT
What makes something play rather than not play, or even work? There is no single overarching definition of play. It comes in all manner of shapes and sizes. It can be solitary or social, imaginary, or rough and tumble, more or less rule bound, verbal or nonverbal, object based, pretend, and more. Play is often characterised by its flexibility, such as putting things in new combinations, changing roles, or making objects represent other things. Play also is generally characterised by positive affect, as seen in Tom Sawyer’s classic ruse when ordered to whitewash a fence by his aunt Polly (Twain, 1986). Begrudging the duty, he managed to trick his friends into believing he was going to paint the fence for fun, whereupon they all fought to do the task that a moment before had seemed drudgery and work, but suddenly had became play. Twain writes ‘work is whatever a body is obliged to do, and play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do’ (p. 14). Various experiments back this up, such as one in which participants were paid to problem solve a task, while others were not paid for the same task, and the remunerated ones gave up earlier than the others (Deci and Ryan, 2000). Similarly, some kindergarten children were rewarded for using pens with stars and ribbons whereas others were given no reward. Next time felt tips were left casually around it was the unrewarded children who wanted to play with them (Lepper et al., 1973). The intrinsic reward of just wanting to do something, like enjoying helping another, is by itself motivating for both children and adults (Warneken and Tomasello, 2008).
