Kapitany
Pretensive Shared Reality: From Childhood Pretense to Adult Imaginative Play
Kapitany
Authors
Abstract
Imaginative pretend play is often thought of as the domain of young children, yet adults regularly engage in elaborated, fantastical, social-mediated pretend play. We describe imaginative play in adults via the term "pretensive shared reality;" Shared Pretensive Reality describes the ability of a group of individuals to employ a range of higher-order cognitive functions to explicitly and implicitly share representations of a bounded fictional reality in predictable and coherent ways, such that this constructed reality may be explored and invented/embellished with shared intentionality in an ad hoc manner. Pretensive Shared Reality facilitates multiple individual and social outcomes, including generating personal and group-level enjoyment or mirth, the creation or maintenance of social groups, or the safe exploration of individual self-concepts (such as alternative expression of a players sexual or gender identity). Importantly, Pretensive Shared Reality (both within the specific context of table-top role-playing games, and other instances) are primarily co-operative and co-creative. We draw on multiple examples, and focus on Table-Top Role Playing games (TTRPG) - and specifically, the most popular and enduring table-top role-playing games, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) - as a primary example of such play. Our conception of "pretensive shared reality" links the widespread existence and forms of adult imaginative play to childhood pretense, places it within a developmental and evolutionary context, and argues that pretensive shared realities - which underpin many forms of imaginative culture - are an important topic of study unto themselves, and may be utilized to provide methodological insight into a variety of psychological domains.
Acceptance Date | Feb 2, 2022 |
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Publication Date | Feb 28, 2022 |
Journal | Frontiers in Psychology |
Publisher | Frontiers Media |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.774085 |
Keywords | pretense; pretend play; games; imagination; table-top role playing; Dungeons & Dragons; pretensive shared reality |
Publisher URL | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.774085/full |
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