Abstract
Social play behavior is receiving increasing attention from ethologists and other scientists who are interested in social development and social organization. To date, however, few quantitative data have been amassed concerning play, and it is not uncommon to read about unsupported contentions being accepted as fact. The purpose of this chapter is to summarize some aspects of play behavior, and to show that more rigorous quantitative analyses are needed in order for interested workers to gain a fuller understanding of this category of behavior.
When people talk about play, they tend to say what it is not—”it is not real” or “it is not serious”—and then the rest of the sentence gets rather vague when the speaker realizes that play is serious (Bateson, 1956, p. 145).
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Bekoff, M. (1976). Animal Play: Problems and Perspectives. In: Bateson, P.P.G., Klopfer, P.H. (eds) Perspectives in Ethology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7572-6_4
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