Gathering Social Information & Play:

Richard D. Alexander:

"I would say ... that it is often useful to play to learn about the social environment. Loizos notes that ' ... it is inevitable that during play, or during any activity, an animal will be gaining additional knowledge about what and who it is playing with; but if this is the major function of play, one must wonder why the animal does not use a more economical way of getting hold of this information.' I suggest that, with regard to the social environment, there often is no more effective and inexpensive way of securing information."