The Benefits of Being a Playful Person
The traditional image of a responsible adult is a serious, hardworking, focused person who does things efficiently and resists frivolity. However, being a playful person doesn’t take away from any of those qualities.
In fact, playfulness has a lot of advantages in both our personal and professional lives. Otherwise, why would big companies like Google value it so much?
There might still be a few environments where playful, joking, mischievous, teasing, and casual people are considered inappropriate. However, playful personalities are skilled at managing difficult situations in all areas of life, although they risk not being taken seriously by others when they try.
Did you know that playfulness is one of the most attractive personality traits?
The advantages of being a playful person
For a long time, research on playfulness focused on children. But in the past few years, psychologists and researchers have opened up a new field of study that seeks to evaluate the importance and impact of playfulness in adult life.
However, compared with research on playfulness in children, there still hasn’t been much done on adults. Also, any research on adult playfulness has used child models, which fail to capture many related personality features in adults.
Recent studies have associated with playfulness in adults with good observational skills, the ability to see things from a new perspective, and the ability to make boring activities more interesting. Playful people can reinterpret situations to make them more entertaining or less stressful.
A team of psychologists from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany investigated playfulness in adults. They found that it can overlap with any of the Big Five personality traits: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and neuroticism.
According to the study, playfulness is an independent personality trait that shares certain things in common with these five global characteristics. But playfulness does not replace any of the personality traits. The study also showed that playful people are viewed that way by others, and that they act playfully in many daily situations.
Psychologists explain that because playful people have original perspectives, when they search for solutions to complex problems, they can easily change their perspective. This allows them to find unusual and novel solutions.
Playfulness is attractive
Playful people enjoy jokes, wordplay, improvisation, and challenges. They also participate in more diverse situations than most and are good at creating environments that others will enjoy.
All of these things make them attractive. These are also characteristics that they look for in other people. In fact, playfulness seems to send a slightly different message to men and women, according to the study researchers.
To women, playfulness sends the message that the man is not aggressive. To men, it shows them that the woman has a lot of energy. According to the study, women seem to be more interested in men with a sense of humor, while men look for women with a more exciting personality.
For this reason, the researchers believe playfulness is an important factor when searching for a partner. Although we should always be cautious when interpreting data, playful people are perceived as more attractive potential partners. That playfulness grows as the relationship grows.
A good dose of playfulness can increase satisfaction in the relationship, making it a beneficial characteristic. It is a source of mutual well-being that maintains excitement and reinforces trust, making intimate moments even more satisfying.