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Play Brings People Together
Play has a serious side, and it’s not just for kids. Even as adults, we continue to obsess over sports and games. Whether we’re competing or cooperating in play, it generally involves some form of social activity: We coordinate and synchronize with other people and we find great joy in the exercise.
Play starts very early in life. Even the act of act of “pretend play” which requires feats of imagination — e.g. pretending to be another person or using objects as though they’re something different — starts as early as 12 months old. The way in which we play matures as we get older, but the basic concept of play is baked into our biological hardware and expressed throughout life.
Soccer with Muslims & Christians
In the middle of a war-torn state, you’d think that play would be the last thing on researchers’ minds. But a 2020 study investigated how a simple game of soccer might bring people together.
In 2014, ISIS captured Mosul and began a genocidal offensive against any Iraqis who didn’t conform to their worldview, forcing Christians and other minority groups to flee their homes. In its wake, it left an enormous tension between Christians and Muslims.
Salma Mousa — a researcher at Yale University — wanted to test whether social games could noticeably improve relations between…
