The world is your playground

A study just published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences explores the topic of playfulness in adults and even implies it could be an addition to the “Big Five” personality traits.

The researchers have identified four types of playfulness in adults:

·         Other-directed: People who like to fool around with friends and acquaintances

·         Light-hearted: People who treat all of life as a kind of game

·         Intellectual: People who enjoy playing with new ideas or who can turn mundane tasks    into something interesting

·         Whimsical: People who are amused by strange, unusual, everyday occurrences.

The authors argue that people who are playful can be misunderstood – it is easy to perceive them as frivolous or unfocused; however, playful people are also well-equipped to find novel solutions to complex problems because they can see things from different perspectives.