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."

Comments

This just in!

[Narcocide]

Popularity of performers also not directly proportional to talent.

Re:This just in!

[Svippy]

Like the story about the applause no one dared to finish, after Stalin had spoken. First one to stop clapping was sent to Siberia. Good times.

Note: There is a good chance this story is entirely false, but since Snopes won't cover it, I'll go with 'it probably happened'.

Re:This just in!

[JustOK]

It only makes a sound if it is in a forest with no one around

Re:This just in!

[Anonymous Coward]

From http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-548542.html

Here is the quote from Solzhenitsyn: A district Party conference was under way in Moscow Province. It was presided over by a new secretary of the District Party Committee, replacing one recently arrested. At the conclusion of the conference, a tribute to Comrade Stalin was called for. Of course, everyone stood up (just as everyone had leaped to his feet during the conference at every mention of his name). The small hall echoed with “stormy applause, rising to an ovation.” For three minutes, four minutes, five minutes, the “stormy applause, rising to an ovation” continued. But palms were getting sore and raised arms were already aching. And the older people were panting from exhaustion. It was becoming insufferably silly even to those who really adored Stalin. However, who would dare be the first to stop? The secretary of the District Party Committee could have done it. He was standing on the platform, and it was he who had just called for the ovation. But he was a newcomer. He had taken the place of a man who’d been arrested. He was afraid! After all, NKVD men were standing in the hall applauding and watching to see who quit first! And in that obscure, small hall, unknown to the Leader, the applause went on—six, seven, eight minutes! They were done for! Their goose was cooked! They couldn’t stop now till they collapsed with heart attacks! At the rear of the hall, which was crowded, they could of course cheat a bit, clap less frequently, less vigorously, not so eagerly—but up there with the presidium where everyone could see them? The director of the local paper factory, an independent and strong-minded man, stood with the presidium. Aware of all the falsity and all the impossibility of the situation, he still kept on applauding! Nine minutes! Ten! In anguish he watched the secretary of the District Party Committee, but the latter dared not stop. Insanity! To the last man! With make-believe enthusiasm on their faces, looking at each other with faint hope, the district leaders were just going to go on and on applauding till they fell where they stood, till they were carried out of the hall on stretchers! And even then those who were left would not falter. . . . Then after eleven minutes, the director of the paper factory assumed a businesslike expression and sat down in his seat. And, oh, a miracle took place! Where had the universal, uninhibited, indescribable enthusiasm gone? To a man, everyone else stopped dead and sat down. They had been saved! The squirrel had been smart enough to jump off his revolving wheel.

Many reasons

[Anonymous Coward]

I clap my hands really fast and strong when i want to fart aswell

applause after bad performance...

[Anonymous Coward]

just means everybody is sooo happy they get to go home.

Re:I'm so happy that some scientists

[Andtalath]

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.

You can start people clapping really easily

[ribuck]

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!

Re:You can start people clapping really easily

[slart42]

Similar experience from my teens:

In my school the principal had all 1500 students gathered in the gym to give some sort of boring speech. In between the students would clap, which I found stupid, because I thought he was talking bullshit. So me and two friends decided to make fun of it, and started clapping in odd places. To our surprise it caught on really well, and quickly everyone joined in - probably some because they got the prank, and others out of reflex. In any case, the situation quickly became hilarious with everyone in the audience clapping as soon as the principal would open his mouth to speak - at some point he started screaming "Stop clapping" - which was of course replied to with a big applause.

Re:Is there nothing else left to study?

[Anonymous Coward]

You are right. Every study on cancer was shut down while researchers worked on the clapping study. It required the best brains in the cancer research studies to pull this off. Thank you for pointing this out between your sessions of porn watching and video games.

Church is a good testbed

[T.E.D.]

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!

Re:Basic social instinct?

[keytoe]

Personally, I never clap even if everyone else is doing it. Take that, peer pressure!

I had a friend in high school who had a very similar response to The Herd. He would always do the opposite, claiming non conformity.

He asked me once why I had similar non conformist viewpoints, but didn't engage in the same sort of 'opposite' behavior he did. I answered that anti-conformity is simply a different form of conformity and that he wasn't being truly independent at all.

If your behavior is a reaction to someone else's behavior, you're not thinking for yourself. If you come to some conclusion on your own that happens to be similar to the herd mentality, it doesn't diminish your personal opinion. To think so is self limiting for no reason other than being contrary.