Synopsis

In their 2025 paper (advance online publication), “Fun isn’t easy: Children selectively manipulate task difficulty when ‘playing for fun’ versus ‘playing to win’,” Junyi Chu and colleagues (Rule, Goddu, Pinter, Reagan, Bonawitz, Gopnik, & Ullman) asked a delightfully straightforward question: Do kids set up games differently when the goal is pure fun versus winning a prize? Using two preregistered experiments with 124 English-speaking children ages 5–10, they created a novel bean-bag-and-baton tossing game and let kids choose how to configure it.

• Children deliberately made the game harder (longer throwing distance, trickier block arrangements) when told to play “just for fun.”
• The same children made it easier when playing “to win” stickers—exactly the opposite pattern.
• Kids rated win-relevant variables (like distance) as more important in the “win” condition, but showed no strong preference in the fun condition—suggesting fun play invites exploration and challenge-seeking rather than easy success.
• Roughly half the kids preferred the fun version over the win version, showing both motivations matter, but they pull in different directions.

The authors conclude that play’s built-in willingness to embrace difficulty (rather than efficiency or guaranteed wins) may be one reason free play supports deeper learning, better decision-making, and resilience. Practical takeaway for parents and early educators: framing activities as “let’s have fun figuring this out” rather than “let’s win/get the gold star” can nudge children toward bigger challenges and richer learning—exactly the kind of evidence-based insight that helps us protect and enrich children’s play in real life.

Links

Here’s a January 2026 article digging into the research:

https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/having-fun-isnt-easy

And here’s a link to the research:

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fdev0002108

Citation

Chu, J., Rule, J. S., Goddu, M. K., Pinter, V., Reagan, E. R., Bonawitz, E., Gopnik, A., & Ullman, T. D. (2025). Fun isn’t easy: Children selectively manipulate task difficulty when “playing for fun” versus “playing to win”. Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0002108

Contribute content to Playvolution HQ
Brought to you by Explorations Early Learning

Browse Trainings