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#397 Gordon Burghardt: The Evolution And Function of Play

The Dissenter

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The Evolution of Playfulness

Early studies argued that girls engage in the interest in dolls and so on, because that's a pre-saging their maternal behavior. And perhaps females prefer things that resemble people. Right. So I think it's a combination of some evolutionary sources of differences, sex differences in playful tendencies and cultural and social factors that can accentuate or inhibit those differences. But interestingly, there are some studies now with monkeys showing that young male monkeys prefer to play with trucks and that and females, monkeys are more interested in doll-like things.

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