Posted on 02/17/2026 3:49:53 PM PST by nickcarraway
Research led by Scott Duncan (Auckland University of Technology) and Melody Smith (University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau)
In A Nutshell
Play isn’t just for kids: Playful adults cope better with stress, feel more positive emotions, and report higher life satisfaction.
Design matters: Cities and social norms often discourage adult play, but embedding playful spaces into everyday life could boost community well-being.
It’s a mindset, not a toy box: Adult play is about curiosity and spontaneity, whether through humor, movement, creativity, or social interaction.
Play strengthens relationships: It builds empathy, emotional intelligence, and even bridges generational divides.
Somewhere along the way to adulthood, time to play fades away. We tend to trade silliness and imagination for seriousness and busyness. Yet there is clear evidence that adults benefit from playfulness just as children do.
Research shows that adults who engage in playful activities tend to cope better with stress, experience more positive emotions, show greater resilience when facing challenges, and report higher levels of life satisfaction.
Our research with New Zealand families highlights how supporting unstructured play can help adults feel less stressed and more connected, while also normalising playfulness in everyday family life.
In a world that demands constant busyness, play offers essential qualities we are at risk of losing: spontaneity, togetherness and the freedom to have fun.
Play in adulthood can look different from play in childhood. It is less about toys or games and more about how we approach everyday experiences.
Adult play can be physical, social, creative or imaginative. It might involve movement, music, humor, storytelling, problem-solving or simply doing something for the pleasure of it.
What makes an activity playful is not its form, but the mindset behind it: curiosity, openness and a willingness to engage without a fixed outcome. For adults, play is often woven into hobbies and moments of exploration that sit outside work and obligation.
The benefits of play in adult life
A recent study suggests a potential neurobiological pathway between playfulness and cognitive health in older adults.
At its core, play provides a space to reset, allowing us to step outside pressure and performance. In doing so, it supports not only stress regulation, but sustains emotional balance and quality of life across adulthood.
The value of playfulness also goes beyond the individual. Playful engagement in social contexts helps build shared emotional resources, shaping how people interact and cope together over time.
Playfulness in adults is also associated with higher emotional intelligence, including stronger ability to perceive and manage emotions in social situations. Observational studies further show that adults who engage playfully are more empathetic, reciprocal and positive in their interactions with others, reinforcing social connection and belonging.
Importantly, play has a unique ability to cut across age boundaries. When adults and children play together, even if unrelated, differences in age, role and status tend to fade, replaced by shared enjoyment and interaction.
Research suggests these inter-generational play experiences can strengthen relationships, support wellbeing and reduce age-based stereotypes. Play becomes a shared language, bridging age divides that are often reinforced by modern living.
As our work highlights, unstructured play remains both possible and meaningful in contemporary life, with families reporting benefits for children’s development as well as family cohesion and shared wellbeing. These findings suggest play can function as an ordinary, rather than exceptional, feature of family and community life.
Making room for play in everyday life
If play matters across the lifespan, the spaces we inhabit need to support it.
Yet most public environments continue to treat play as something designed primarily for children. Research in urban design suggests the most effective playful environments for adults are those that don’t announce themselves as playgrounds, but instead embed playful possibilities into everyday settings.
Features such as oversized steps, stepping stones, interactive seating or winding paths can invite exploration, balance and movement. In some cities, this extends to adult-sized play elements integrated into public space, such as musical swings that turn routine movement into playful interaction.
Despite these examples, play-oriented design remains the exception rather than the norm, with most public play infrastructure still concentrated in children’s spaces. Designing cities that invite adult play as part of everyday life could be a valuable investment in inclusion, social connection and population wellbeing.
Environments that support play are not just physical, but social. Just as urban design can invite or discourage playful movement, social norms shape whether play feels acceptable in adult life.
When play is treated as embarrassing, indulgent or something to apologise for, it quickly disappears. But when playful behaviour is visible and unremarkable, it becomes easier for others to participate.
Play has long been treated as something separate from adult life, confined to childhood or reserved for rare moments of leisure. Yet the evidence suggests playfulness continues to matter well beyond early development.
Reframing play as a legitimate part of adult life opens up new ways of thinking about well-being across the lifespan.
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Jim
i love to play first person shooter computer game...
there is this realistic one where i can change the enemy’s voice to chinese. so i can pretend i’m shooting commies.
it’s fantastic, lots of customization for firearms with attachments and mods. it does have my favorite sks
Especially as you get older it is kind of important to have friends. Once retirement arrives you realize how much of your socializing was centered around work. With that gone many people become solitary.
So start playing Warhammer 40k or join a bridge club or start a group project repairing cars or something. It is fun and it is good for you.
Oh, My!
Be careful. If an Ai is involved, and you want Commies on the screen, a whole lot of democRATS just might appear.
Imagine if you were to ask the AI "why did you display democRATS as Commies?"
AI response: "If it walks like a Commie duck, and talks like a Commie duck......"
Play by posting an opposing position on Free Republic.
I mean just being a jerk does not engender bonds, it does not contribute to building anything up and unless you are a low life degenerate who feeds on discord and pain it does nothing for you.
You don't even end up with a painted model at the end.
I suppose some people who are mentally unhealthy might do it.
Just about all vertebrates play.
https://youtu.be/B9-4wTmn8gU
If you can’t play, however you are able, you may as well be dead.
My outlet is music. I am a ham when it comes to performing. I “play” my music with friends. I ‘play’ flirting with the ladies. Loads of fun to be had at open mic nights and Irish Sessions.
Play, but don’t party, is what I’m sayin’.
“ Turns out he was far ahead.”
He was disgusting. Making pornography mainstream was evil.
And it’s not “play”.
Pick a side, Ukraine/Russia. Catholic/Protestant. Male/female. You get sting supporters on both sides. I find the headache many times isn’t worth it but some people like to play.
He paved the road of sexual immorality in the “sexual revolution” which now has us with trans “counselors” in schools.
But if you want to mess up your mental health and die lonely and be eaten by rats, totally your choice.
Yet even most children engage in little of this:
Children now spending an average of just 4-7 minutes per day in unstructured, independent, and outdoor play, often replaced by high levels of sedentary screen time. - https://www.nrpa.org/uploadedFiles/nrpa.org/Advocacy/Children-in-Nature.pdf[And]
The Atlantic reports that of the 10.9 million children riding in 2023, less than 5 percent were frequent riders. School Travel: Bike Fort Collins notes the percentage of children walking or biking to school dropped from 48% in 1969 to 11% in 2021.
That was sinful and perverse...... haven’t you looked around lately to see what society has become...do you even think critically about consequences?...actions and reactions?
I don’t think that will occur if I take a minority view once in a while.
I was merely addressing his happiness for “play” which was built upon selfishness and narcissism. We choose other forms of happiness.
The Golden Calf state of behavior of American society today was, as others have said, partly formed by the Hugh Hefner “philosophy” and was wrong.
I was the opposite of him. Low self esteem, self denial of happiness. Said of me: “You don’t know how to have fun.”
And you want to do it as a hobby.
Shows you are stupid and your soul is mostly dead already.
But none of my never mind. Hope you are not just mostly dead when the rats start chewing.
And you want to do it as a hobby.
Shows you are stupid and your soul is mostly dead already.
But none of my never mind. Hope you are not just mostly dead when the rats start chewing.
My recollection is that the hook was lawn sprinklers. You start getting older when you no longer play in a lawn sprinkler--playing in a sprinkler keeps you young.
Cool concept.
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