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psychology of play as entertainment  

Definition

  • Writing about verbal play as entertainment in African-American culture, Roger D. Abrahams touched on a profoundly revealing feature of the psychology involved. He noted that boasting, cursing, and various forms of oral vilification, in black street culture for instance, depend for their entertaining effects on the background presence of real threats, so that there is always some ambiguity about whether one is speaking playfully or seriously. [Source: Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society; Play as Entertainment, Psychology of]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/psychology_of_play_as_entertainment

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