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7 Research-Backed Benefits of Playing

Source: Photo by Gaspar Uhas on Unsplash

Key Points:

• Brain-scan studies consistently show that play activates creative brain centers and can help with brain connectivity.
• Psychological studies have shown that play generally boosts creativity and confidence.
• Studies also show that play decreases stress, anxiety, and uncertainty intolerance.

Sometimes I find myself preaching to the choir. I write about play’s psychological benefits, and fellow educators and play practitioners often tell me that they’ve known these things long before researchers and academic entities started looking at brain activity as it is happening when someone is being creative.
I hear something drastically different when my interactions and inquiries reach beyond early childhood professionals and play practitioners. People respond by saying that play can’t possibly have psychological benefits because they played when they were children, and that was a long time ago. It is difficult for them to consider playing regularly; what I call Restorative Practice.

So, I thought it was time to list what research has shown about the benefits of adult play so far. There are fMRI and EEG studies that show how play alters the brain, as well as a fast-growing list of psychological studies measuring play’s impact on creativity, stress, confidence, anxiety, uncertainty intolerance, and psychological well-being.
We have a substantial body of research indicating how powerful play can be as a therapeutic tool. Play literally changes your mind, so if you’re one of the uninitiated, I hope this list of benefits changes your mind about considering the practice of regular play. A very low dosage and frequency yields exponential positive benefits!

1. Playing activates language and creativity centers in the brain.

Play changes the brain. In a series of studies, Charles Limb and his team put jazz improvisers, freestyle rappers, and improv comedians into fMRI machines. Functional MRIs measure blood flow in the brain, giving us a better picture of which brain areas are more and less activated. Limb and team found that during any kind of improvisation, which play DEFINITELY IS, an area called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex tends to be less active, and an area known as the medial prefrontal cortex becomes more active. This means that while improvising, a brain region associated with self-judgment “quiets down,” and a creative and language brain center “speaks up.” This inverse relationship is known as weak connectivity in the executive control network and is more generally linked with flow states and creativity.

2. Play helps promote brain connectivity.

Play also helps with brain wave coherence. In another study, Mary DeMichele and Scott Kuenneke placed qEEG electrodes on adolescents’ heads and measured their brain wave activity before and after they played. They found that having fun helped enormously with brain coherence. Since trauma negatively affects coherence, they propose that anything that counts as playing could be a helpful treatment for people with complex trauma since it may help them connect better with others and help brain regions work better together.

3. Play boosts creativity.

Playing helps with divergent thinking. There are many studies linking play and enhanced divergent thinking, collaboration, and self-efficacy.

4. Improvising reduces social anxiety.

It may sound out-there, but studies by Peter Felsman confirm that communicative play can reduce social anxiety, even after just a 20 minute intervention.

5. Existing in a state of play, even very briefly, reduces uncertainty intolerance.

Uncertainty intolerance is the psychological gauge of how not-okay someone is with the unknown. Peter Felsman led another study that showed that, overall, communicating with others during play helps reduce this intolerance. This decrease is linked with a decrease in social anxiety. In short, play makes many people more tolerant of uncertainty, which makes them more likely to face uncomfortable situations.

6. Playing boosts confidence.

When you are engaged in play, it increases interpersonal and performance confidence. Sirke Seppänen measured student teachers’ self-assurance with questionnaires before and after playing with others, and found that, compared to a control group, the players’ interpersonal confidence was raised. Interpersonal confidence is the belief that one can interact with others successfully. By and large, participants who began the study with lower confidence levels experienced the biggest increases in their confidence levels.

7. Communicative Play decreases stress.

Communicative play has also been shown to decrease stress before a performance task. Seppänen led a study that compared participants’ stress levels before and after publicly answering a math question. They used questionnaires, saliva samples to test cortisol levels, and electrodes to measure stress levels. They found that the group who participated in a seven-week play and communication course were less stressed before the math task. Much like Sepannen’s findings with confidence, the participants with the lowest confidence levels reported the largest stress-mitigation effects.

Summary: Just Playing Is Awesome Medicine

In just one decade, researchers have done exciting research and begun to paint a more complete picture of play’s benefits and how we can use it as a intervention treatment. In a world where we seem to be growing farther apart and becoming more anxious and divided, playing is a great way we can get out of our heads, work well with others, and feel much better.