# Studies of the psychology of kids at play. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 25, 2006, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204 "2006-08-25T14:58:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/1 "2006-08-25T14:58:22Z")
My son is 6 and he has recently gained a new friend. My lady friend who comes over and brings her 6 year old with her. As soon as the two kids see each other they start wrestling and play fighting nonstop. I’ve always wondered why kids do this, psychologically. I understand that’s what kids do, they play. But what studies have been done regarding this subject? Do they do it for territorial claim? Social hierarchy? To see who’s tougher? Humans being intelligent animals ourselves, they remind me of puppies and other animals that “fake fight”. Is it any different? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/2 "2006-08-25T15:02:19Z")
Hey, _without_ that instinct to develop combat skills, the world would still be run by dinosaurs. Or something other than humans, to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/3 "2006-08-25T15:59:40Z")
I don’t know why you limit it to humans. Humans are a violent species like other mammals such as bears, tigers, lions, and apes. They all do the same thing when they are young. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/4 "2006-08-25T16:27:49Z")
You ought to see 2 little girls playing dolls or Barbies. They’re all about drama and punishment and conflict. It’s like a soap opera x 10. ---
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/5 "2006-08-25T19:51:16Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] I don’t know why you limit it to humans. Humans are a violent species like other mammals such as bears, tigers, lions, and apes. They all do the same thing when they are young. [/QUOTE] Did you read my whole post? > [@](#): > > Humans being intelligent animals ourselves, they remind me of puppies and other animals that “fake fight”. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/6 "2006-08-26T03:07:52Z")
Looks to me like you answered your own question. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/7 "2006-08-26T04:50:37Z")
Do you “wrestle” with your ladyfriend? Maybe it’s just genetics - your genes want to wrestle with hers 😉 ---
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/8 "2006-08-26T18:29:10Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] Looks to me like you answered your own question. [/QUOTE] Not really, because I’m looking for studies done on the subject as well. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/9 "2006-08-26T19:40:08Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] Looks to me like you answered your own question. [/QUOTE] Here is a list of the questions contained in the text of the OP: > [@OP](#): > > I’ve always wondered why kids do this, psychologically. > > But what studies have been done regarding this subject? > > Do they do it for territorial claim? > > Social hierarchy? > > To see who’s tougher? > > Humans being intelligent animals ourselves, they remind me of puppies and other animals that “fake fight”. Is it any different? Here is a list of the statements contained in the text of the OP: > [@OP](#): > > My son is 6 and he has recently gained a new friend. > > My lady friend who comes over and brings her 6 year old with her. As soon as the two kids see each other they start wrestling and play fighting nonstop. > > I understand that’s what kids do, they play. Kindly explain which statements answer which questions. ---
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/10 "2006-08-27T00:53:41Z")
Exactly. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/11 "2006-08-27T08:04:23Z")
You missed one statement. “Humans being intelligent animals ourselves, they remind me of puppies and other animals that ‘fake fight.’” Not sure about any studies, and while I would have to think someone has tried I suspect that it pretty much just does come down to the researching throwing up the wild-assed guess that kids do it because humans are combative animals. The best one could do to prove this theory would be to check the brain readings of a human kid against a puppy, but of course that has the problems that: 1. It’s going to be rather hard to get a brain scan of a kid who’s in the middle of wrestling around with a friend. 2. Ditto for a puppy. 3. The most this would tell you is that human kids and puppies were being entertained in the same way, but not what that entertainment was. 4. It’s doubtful that you could make any sort of one-to-one relationship between the brain of a dog and a human to even be able to draw such a conclusion (without a whole lot of extra work.) ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/12 "2006-08-27T08:16:45Z")
[QUOTE=diggleblop] Humans being intelligent animals ourselves [/QUOTE] Hold on, do you have a cite for this? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/13 "2006-08-27T08:28:16Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] You missed one statement. “Humans being intelligent animals ourselves, they remind me of puppies and other animals that ‘fake fight.’” [/QUOTE] No, I quoted those words in the question section, because they were part of a question. Maybe, though, **Bryan Eckers** took it to be a statement and missed the question that it was part of. That’s understandable. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/14 "2006-08-27T13:36:24Z")
[QUOTE=diggleblop] My son is 6 and he has recently gained a new friend. My lady friend who comes over and brings her 6 year old with her. As soon as the two kids see each other they start wrestling and play fighting nonstop. I’ve always wondered why kids do this, psychologically. I understand that’s what kids do, they play. But what studies have been done regarding this subject? Do they do it for territorial claim? Social hierarchy? To see who’s tougher? Humans being intelligent animals ourselves, they remind me of puppies and other animals that “fake fight”. Is it any different? [/QUOTE] Good to hear that you have found a wrestling partnerette. It sounds as if the lads like each other. Have you ever considered that the observers might be influencing the experiment ? When they have an audience their behaviour will be different from when they are on their own, although leaving two six year old males unsupervised is a rather risky proposition. Ahem, to answer your question, they are ‘showing off’ - and not to each other. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-of-the-psychology-of-kids-at-play/370204/15 "2006-08-27T22:49:13Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] Kindly explain which statements answer which questions. [/QUOTE] I thought the overall question “Why do humans do this?” and the answer “they do this for the same reason other mammals do”. As for studies on pre-adolsecent aggression, I’m sure they exist. Happy hunting.