Why play brings us pleasure

Play has long been studied as a behavior whose purpose is not obvious given survival costs. Earlier explanations ranged from skill rehearsal to surplus energy, catharsis, and instinct. Developmental psychologists often view play as learning about the world and one’s place in it, but the rewarding “fun” aspect has been less explained. A cognitive theory of play based on predictive processing proposes that people reduce uncertainty to improve predictions, while play intentionally increases uncertainty to generate pleasure when predictions are corrected. This framework links play to children’s learning and to adults’ benefits, including maintaining healthy aging brains and enabling idea generation that cannot be fully outsourced to algorithms.

"“Yes, it's about learning about the world,” he says. “Everyone agrees that play is really good for that. But no one really deals with the fun aspect. Why is it that it's so rewarding?”"

"According to this framework, people are wired to reduce uncertainty as we strive to perfect our predictions of the world around us - but when we play, paradoxically, we deliberately choose to increase uncertainty in order to experience the pleasure of reducing it."

"Andersen's theory explains how play spurs children to learn about themselves and the world, but it also has important implications for adults: Our sense of play, it turns out, is crucial not only for having fun, but also for keeping our aging brains healthy and uncovering new ideas in ways that can't be outsourced to an algorithm."

Read at Big Think