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Length of Applause Not Tied To Quality of Presentation
sciencehabit writes "The next time you hear extended applause for a performance you didn't think was that great, don't feel like a snob. A new study reveals that audience response has more to do with the people in the seats than those up on stage. Applause, it turns out, is a bit like peer pressure. In a study of college students, individuals were more likely to start clapping if a larger percentage of the audience had already started. If 50% of the audience was clapping, for example, individuals were 10 times more likely to start clapping than if 5% of the audience was clapping. People stop clapping for the same reason. Even more surprising, the applause for a bad presentation could be just as long as applause for a good one. Random interactions in the audience can result in very different lengths of applause regardless of the quality of the talk."
Popularity of performers also not directly proportional to talent.
After all these years of evolution, we are still just ants responding to pheromones or cows prone to rampages.
Are they trying to win the 2013 Ig Nobel prize or something?
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
I clap my hands really fast and strong when i want to fart aswell
just means everybody is sooo happy they get to go home.
even if they don't understand a thing that was said in the presentation. like many attending political rallies...
I mean, important stuff, like cure for cancer?
They have to study what is obvious to anybody with a bit of a common sense? And how is this non-story ends up on /.?
Science can be so awkward when it makes statements like this about things that were obvious to most of the world already.
Not all benefits can be fully quantifiable or tangible.
You never know when weird discoveries can have monumental effects.
Besides, it's not like there's a lack of research about cancer, HIV and other diseases.
When I was in my teens, I was watching a circus. Between every act, a cleaner with a broom and a garbage bag would clear any detritus from the ring.
After a few acts, I clapped this guy, just for a laugh. To my surprise, everyone else joined in. From that point on, until the end of the show, the cleaner got rapturous applause every time!
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A lot of talks I've seen by scientists and scientific panelists have very brief periods of clapping, sometimes even completely forgotten about in favor of jumping directly to questions. They use their limited time to convey the most information. Compare this with non-scientific presentations which regularly pause and soak up the adoration of the audience. IMO, the shorter the clapping the better the presentation.
A scientist on stage has nothing to prove -- They do that sort of thing in the lab.
You're commenting on the wrong story, dude.
Next door down.
CLAP.
CLAP.
CLAP.
(clap clap clapclap clap clap clapclapclapclapclapclap)
Create checksums at the end of DNA and compare the checksum to known one & destroy the bad ones. Cancer cured right! (You just have to hope the "known one" doesn't get corrupted, cause it will start to destroy everything in you, mwahaha!)
Fine, as long as research grants spent on problems as opposed to this nonsense.
This is something that I think most people already know happens. I mean, I get that verifying it experimentally is necessary before the implications can be considered, but it certainly isn't going to raise many eyebrows, is it?
Its how you applaud that matters...
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Test comment from lal
There is video of Saddam Hussein doing the same thing with a big shit eating grin smoking a cigar to wild applause by visibly terrified military people sitting in theater seating. The ones he's picking out of the crowd are escorted out of the room and executed. Not sure where I saw it, I think it was History Channel, years ago.
That has nothing to do with it. Clapping is not expected at a scientific presentation. Because it's not expected, people mostly don't do it.
I go to one of the old "mainline" churches. It is a cultural feature there that you are not supposed to applaud performances, as they are (supposedly) done for the glory of God, not self aggrandizement.
However, it occasionally still happens, which makes it a really interesting study. Our choir director was asked about it, and he said it was his observation that it tended to happen much more often when a peice ends suddenly after a very loud part. His theory was that sudden silence feels out of place, so the parishoners feel the need to fill it with something. After a couple more years of watching it myself, I believe he may be onto something.
So I would suspect the frequency and volume of applause probably has a lot more to do with how the preceeding piece ended than with they quality of the performance. As a performer, if you want applause, just make sure your final note/line/whatever is as loud as possible!
1. Pay a few guys to start clapping and keep going.
2. Profit!
(Or: guess where the word "claqueur" comes from. This effect has been known for centuries.)
Just watch any stand-up comedian. Inevitable hooting and applause at any joke that mentions farts or genitalia.
I've never heard speakers know what they were saying at a political rally either.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
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Conclusion: "Well, duh..."
Tell me that again when you're lying in bed in agony because the morphine just isn't doing it any more.
And 9 women can gestate a baby in 1 month?
Have gnu, will travel.
They only looked at the length of applause involving groups of 13 to 20 undergraduate and postgraduate students. This is a special case.
During my time as a postgraduate student I gave many good presentations, but my 1th year presentations were abdominal, I was under prepared and inexperienced, as were many fellow students. People clapped at the end of my terrible talks as long as any other talk as they just wanted to encourage me. It's common for students to suffer a lack of confidence at the early stage of their studies. The audience knows this, especially one composed of fellow students. I can't imagine students singling out a student for a brief slow-hand clap for a poor presentation.
The situation is entirely different at large conferences where speakers and audience members are unrelated. For example, at big conference about meteorites some years ago, the length of applause appeared to be strongly correlated with the quality of a speaker's presentation, one speaker got no applause at all. And there was no kindness given to anxious postgraduate students. I well remember one student's presentation regarding the temperature of formation of Allan Hills 84001. As soon as his talk ended, there was some brief subdued applause, then a scientist immediately leapt up and climbed over 15 rows of seats to the overhead projector. He took the student's slide off the projector and put up his own, then wagged his finger a the student telling him he was wrong and why. The student was nearly in tears. This is completely different from the group of students who are likely to be kind to each other.
Here's a paper that explains why studying "Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies" (i.e. university students) is not good practice...
Henrich, J. Heine, S.J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? (free access). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2-3), 61-83. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X0999152X
I think it's out of happiness to finally get my life back from the insane limbo of boredom.
Like whistling and screaming "Ya baby, take it all off!"
Sig. Sig. Sputnik
I'm not sure what the "correct" level for cancer research would be but I think the claim that there's money to waste on things like the subject of this thread is specious.
I applaud this article repeatedly and loudly... everyone else seems to be doing so.
You aren't a snob, you're extremely insecure and need to work on that.
Learn to lead your life yourself, not follow the crowd.
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If all research was focused on problems we wouldn't have any of our modern technology.
There's a famous quote from Faraday...he once gave a demonstration where he moved a magnet through a coil of wire causing the needle of a compass on the other end to move as well. Afterwards a member of the audience came up and essentially asked "Well, this is all very interesting, but what USE is it?" to which Faraday replied "Of what use is a newborn baby?". Without "useless" experiments like that, we wouldn't have electricity.
Who knows what effects this could ultimately have on our understanding of human psychology...I agree, probably none, it seems pretty obvious...but you never know.
undoing moderation
there are way more important problems to solve in sociology than this nonproblem. thanks for the strawman tho'. oh and please next time be a tad less yellow and post with your nickname.
How do you know that's not what the balloons were there for?
...but apparently that wouldn't mean anything.
And if I was being paid with money extorted from the public via taxes, you might well have a point.
Though I don't think cancer research should be being paid via taxes either.
on the quality of the clap sign!