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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/19/in-praise-of-clapping-swedish-researchers-editorial
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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| In praise of … contagious clapping | In praise of … contagious clapping |
| (4 months later) | |
| Never join a club that would have you as a member? That works for a crowded tube train, where personal space is at a premium, and you do everything possible to insulate yourself from your intrusive, unwelcome, iPod-wearing neighbour. But not for an audience, where you do what the group tells you to. If it claps, you do – and quickly. Swedish researchers filming groups of students responding to the same lecture found that it took just under three seconds from the first student to start clapping till the last, and nearly double that time for the audience to recover from the "infection" of applause. The rate at which newcomers begin clapping is proportional to how many are already clapping. Personal appreciation, quality of the performance – all are secondary to acoustics and to the social problem an audience must solve, not in how and when to start a round of applause, but how to co-ordinate its end. A big hand, please, for social contagion. | Never join a club that would have you as a member? That works for a crowded tube train, where personal space is at a premium, and you do everything possible to insulate yourself from your intrusive, unwelcome, iPod-wearing neighbour. But not for an audience, where you do what the group tells you to. If it claps, you do – and quickly. Swedish researchers filming groups of students responding to the same lecture found that it took just under three seconds from the first student to start clapping till the last, and nearly double that time for the audience to recover from the "infection" of applause. The rate at which newcomers begin clapping is proportional to how many are already clapping. Personal appreciation, quality of the performance – all are secondary to acoustics and to the social problem an audience must solve, not in how and when to start a round of applause, but how to co-ordinate its end. A big hand, please, for social contagion. |
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