In the current study, we explored changes in the lived play experiences of college students as they were sent home in March 2020 in response to the growing COVID-19 pandemic, and the impacts of those play changes upon their daily lives, relationships, and well-being. Undergraduates (N = 71) from a public university near New York City - the epicentre of the pandemic in the United States at that time - completed an open-ended questionnaire about their play experiences before versus after lockdown. Data were analyzed using template analysis to develop a hierarchical outline of thematic codes. Participant responses revealed strikingly varied experiences in their play lives as a result of the lockdown. While some students experienced deep losses in what and with whom they played, for others the transition offered opportunities for discovery (or rediscovery) of play activities or a reprioritization of play in their lives. Still other students found ways to maintain their prior ways of playing with minor disruption. We will discuss the implications of the current findings for the role and importance of play not only during the pandemic, but also in the context of emerging adulthood and broader human need satisfaction.
Given that economic growth is typically associated with ecological destruction and little improvement in human happiness, alternative indicators of progress have been developed to provide decision-makers with additional non-economic information that might better protect the environment and promote human well-being. However, to our knowledge, no experimental evidence exists which demonstrates that the use of such alternative indicators actually causes changes in behaviors. We therefore asked participants to pretend that they were the mayor of a small city that had the opportunity to develop natural land on its borders. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either standard indicators (consisting of only economic information) or alternative indicators (consisting of economic, ecological, and well-being information) as they made decisions over the course of their "term" as mayor. Participants who received alternative indicator feedback developed significantly fewer acres of the natural land than did those who received standard indicator feedback (Cohen's d = .52). The effect of indicator type did not significantly interact with gender, ethnicity, or value orientation, but participants low in need for cognition were more sensitive to the type of indicator provided than were those high in need for cognition. The results provide the first experimental evidence supporting the claim that alternative indicators can cause decision-makers to focus less on economic outcomes and to prioritize wellbeing and ecological outcomes.
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