Variation in Strategic Involvement in Games for Three Blue Collar Occupations

Seventy-four respondents drawn from three blue collar occupations in Halifax, Nova Scotia maintained diaries of their leisure activities for one week. Forty-one workers played games. It was predicted in advance that as occupational social complexity increased from the level of the mechanics through that of the factory workers to the level of the policemen, the strategic emphasis within the games played by respondents would also increase. On a larger scale similar associations between social complexity and the playing of games of strategy have been for a sample of world cultures. The discovery of the same association within the restricted range of three occupations provides convergent validity for the hypothesis and adds to the knowledge of the expressive fabric of a modern city's culture.