Risky Play

Abstract

This chapter explores how the upbringing of children can affect the extent to which they are capable of and prepared to deal with risk, uncertainty, and fallibility in adulthood. More specifically, it discusses how children's engagement in risky play can have anti-phobic effects that help to prepare them for encounters with real and probable adversity as adults, and also the critical quality moments where the next decision they make will crucially impact the outcome of processes at work. The aim of the chapter is to consider possible links from findings in childhood research to theories about people's capabilities to cope with fallibility in work settings. It does so by applying the concept of resilience, and the distinctions between growth and fix mindset, and between agent and pawn mentality.