Why do we have fun?

[Mechsaurian]

This will sound like an extremely strange question, but here goes:

Why on earth do the higher mammals (primates, dolphins, dogs & cats, etc) have the ability to have fun, fun being defined as and otherwise pointless activity that makes one feel good? I know the purpose of most other emotions (fear/warning for danger, happy/reward for something good), but why do we have fun? For a brain that is supposed to be centered around survival, food, and repeoduction, fun seems like an illogical emotion.

[MacG]

Fun relieves stress for me. Also stimulates the brain if your enjoying it with laughter.

Like going with friends, joking around. It's like releasing the pressure vaults.

Or maybe these Higher mammals are part of a society structure and having fun bonds them closer together since it is a nessarity to their society for survival?

[SoldierPrime]

Yes laughter/having fun is a stress reliver. Releases some chemical in the brain for plessure. It's just one of those things that are put there and have evolved over time...

[Mechsaurian]

Great. I guess our body knows that stress can make you sick.

But why don't less intelligent animals need fun? Do they even get stressed?

[EdvardMunch]

Who said less intelligent animals don't need fun? How less intelligent do you mean? Dogs and cats can suffer from depression, so it naturally follows they need fun too.

It seems that the more intelligent a creature is, the more strongly emotions are felt and shone through them, probably because they have the greater intellectual ability to interpret events in multiple ways. For example, a fly sees a cupcake, it thinks "food, I must eat." We see a cupcake and think "It is a cupcake, I love cupcakes! They're delicious! Why should I be so lucky?" Because we're smarter, we see how one thing leads to another better.

Then again, conditioning plays a role. As soon as we see a cupcake we don't need to think it is good to know to salivate, our mouth is way ahead of us there. Do lesser intelligent beings have the same response? I wonder if they've ever done an experiment to see how long it takes a more intelligent and less intelligent animal to be conditioned to the same things... Is a human conditioned to a dinner bell faster than one of Pavlov's dogs?

[hammocksleeper]

Great. I guess our body knows that stress can make you sick.
You can't just say this and dismiss it like that. You have to ask, Why does stress make us sick?


(off-topic) Hey Eduardo I saw a lot of Munch stuff at the reopening of the Albertina in Vienna over the summer. It's some good stuff ya?

[EdvardMunch]

My guess on why stress makes us sick: When we are under stress, our body works harder to keep us ready to move. If our body is forced to work too hard too long, it crashes, thus letting in all the meanie germs and virii.

I think what is interesting about emotions is how many of them are negative. This is a list of what most psychologists describe as our primary emotions, which are emotions felt by everybody, regardless of society: Joy, surprise, contempt, disgust, anger, sadness, fear. Only two of those are not bad emotions (and by bad emotion, I mean that which most of us do not want to feel) and surprise is more of a neutral emotion than a good one, since you could be surprised when something or good or bad happens. Joy, out of those seven, is really the only good emotion. It's as though it arose in response to the other 6, which I say in support of the "it is there to release stress" theory.

However, just to play Devil's Advocate, if happiness is there to release stress, how come we can experience emotion in the absense of emotional stress? You could be with a friend, having a great time, and the happiness level could be increasing as the great time goes on. This isn't happiness in response to stress, this is happiness in response to happiness.

And now for some senseless little-known movie plugging: "13 Conversations About One Thing" it's a good movie about things happening to people and how those things effect their happiness. Contrary to the title, they don't stand around and talk.

(OT) Heck yeah, I love Munch's paintings. I had to do a report on him for psych class where I analyzed his personality and it gave a lot of his work new meaning for me. It was also interesting to hear the story behind some of his paintings (like The Scream). Too bad Munch didn't do very many paintings about happiness, (before his stay in the mental hospital) I could parade them around.

[Grom_Icecream]

Fun is a mechanism to encourage people to do things that are generally good for them. If we didnt have fun we would not get much stress relief at all which is bad for ya. Fun probably just evolved so people would have ways to relieve stress.

Meh. This is too complicated.

[Schwitzer]

Fun is a three-fold bonus.

Firstly it is a way to prevent boredom; you can't be concerned about your survival 24-7; there's just too many hours in the day.

Secondly is the concept that "a life without fun is life without living" (you may quote me on that; I made it up just then). If we don't have fun what do we have? Stress, worries, anxiety, loathing... such a person could surely not survive in todays society. Take it as you will, but if you really want to drag this back to survival techniques you can't help but wonder whether we subconsciously have fun so we can integrate with todays environmental conditions.

Lastly let's consider the obvious answer: we have fun because we enjoy it. That's the meaning of the word "fun"; something that is enjoyable.

[Flak]

This will sound like an extremely strange question, but here goes:

Why on earth do the higher mammals (primates, dolphins, dogs & cats, etc) have the ability to have fun, fun being defined as and otherwise pointless activity that makes one feel good? I know the purpose of most other emotions (fear/warning for danger, happy/reward for something good), but why do we have fun? For a brain that is supposed to be centered around survival, food, and repeoduction, fun seems like an illogical emotion.It is quite a logical emotion. Amusement and enjoyment are logical, correct? Well, not only do we have larger brains, us "higher" mammals, but our logic is far better than that of an insect or a rodent. We question things. If something tickles our fancy, we derive enjoyment from it. If there is nothing to do, one may yearn for activity, some more than others. "Fun" may make one feel better when they are stressed, it can release tension. It is like a "boredom-relief" mechanism. It is good for your well-being to have fun. One who can not enjoy himself is not healthy.

Great. I guess our body knows that stress can make you sick.

But why don't less intelligent animals need fun? Do they even get stressed?
Well, they may not lead as stressful lives because they haven't made their lives as complicated as we "higher thinking" beings have. They have a simple routine that they do. We, on the other hand, have many different things we enjoy doing, because we have a wider range of emotions and we have a larger memory and a larger attention span than less intelligent animals. Take me, for example, I could be outside in the nicest weather we have had in about 5 months, but I prefer to be here, and why? Because I have made up my mind that I am having more fun here than I would be having out there. The brain reacts to pain, stress is taken as a sort of mental pain, the brain therefore attempts to relieve itself by means of distraction.

[Frattimonde]

This may sound akward, but I belive that fun Is a gift from
the gods.

For if there would be no fun, we would just be "machines".
And the gods don`t want us just to be machines.

But still makes one wonder, If they don´t want us to be machines of nature.

Then what is our purpose?

[RelinaIonna]

People are addicts by nature, depending on nurture/nature certain things stimulate our pleasure centre. The pleasure centre releases chemicals, which make us feel "good" this explains why we develop routines, doing things that are fun and avoiding things that aren't. Some people have a low attention span, so the same thing is fun for long; changing activities all the time is a routine in itself, its the changing that makes you happy. Why do we do things that aren’t fun? Well their are several reasons: One, If we don't get it out of the way we are unhappy and there fore not having fun. Two, If we get it over with now, then the sooner we can do fun things and not be burdened my worry (about the unfinished/not done thing) Three, we are aware of and may fear the consequences of not doing/finishing that none fun task. Their are those who are lazy or procrastinators, are gluttons. They love the fun drug, and disregard the consequences. As I said we are addicts. (Use peoples addiction to s** for a further example.)

[Frattimonde]

People are addicts by nature, depending on nurture/nature certain things stimulate our pleasure centre. The pleasure centre releases chemicals, which make us feel "good" this explains why we develop routines, doing things that are fun and avoiding things that aren't. Some people have a low attention span, so the same thing is fun for long; changing activities all the time is a routine in itself, its the changing that makes you happy. Why do we do things that aren’t fun? Well their are several reasons: One, If we don't get it out of the way we are unhappy and there fore not having fun. Two, If we get it over with now, then the sooner we can do fun things and not be burdened my worry (about the unfinished/not done thing) Three, we are aware of and may fear the consequences of not doing/finishing that none fun task. Their are those who are lazy or procrastinators, are gluttons. They love the fun drug, and disregard the consequences. As I said we are addicts. (Use peoples addiction to s** for a further example.) As the title says above, Intressting.

But hey! What do you think is our purpose?
Did the gods create us for their amusement or
some other purpose.

[RelinaIonna]

Speaking from a Christian perspective for a second:

We are in God's own image because he was us, just as we will be him. What I mean is, After all prophecies are fulfilled, Zion is restored to earth, heaven and earth unites, Christ's 2nd Resurrection and Satan's 100 year reign, and Satan and his followers are finally cast into the lake of fire to never exist again, then and only then, will the best of us receive the ultimate blessing... God Hood! We will be given the chance to create our own universe to govern as God was. Will any of us make the cut? Doubtful, given the trillions of humans who have existed over time. So there it is. The Ultyrian Cycle [Ultyrian=Beyond Divine(God) Beyond Celestial (Heaven) Beyond Empyreal (Highest Level of Heaven)] But I don't accept this, but apparently its the final destination for Christians... this was practices by the Great Christian Church (The one that the Easter Orthodox and Catholothism emerged from)