Impressions
Myth about Clapping
A Swedish study published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface makes one sit up and take note of the strangeness of human nature. Conventionally, one would have thought that audience applause is a recognition of good performance on stage. This myth is exploded by the research finding that the 'quality of performance does not drive the amount of applause an audience gives'. It is in a large part simulated or artificial reaction or response, if you like. What passes for spontaneity is hardly so, except for the involuntariness of it.
It is found that clapping is a 'social contagion'. It takes one or a couple of people to start it and then it spreads through the group into a noisy burst of applause. It is the tone of noise that influences the amount of clapping. Similarly, the clapping winds down through one or two individuals disentangling their cusps, rather unconsciously paring the decibel in the auditorium or open air space.
So, the performers or presenters getting good to moderate applause should not delude themselves into thinking that it is any reliable measure of the quality of their performance. Instead, it's a reflection of crowd dynamics breaking out in chain reaction or bowling effect, if you like.
About clapping, booing or shooing there have been interesting tales that any knowledgeable person knows, enough to bear any repetition. One in an audience was totally unimpressed by a musical concert; much as he would have liked to walk out of it or boo the performer, he confessed to quietly enduring the resounding applause for fear of crowd disapproval. Classical music or dance may not have too many connoisseurs – the uninitiated may feel only bored and would like to leave, he stays in lest he betrays a lack of finesse in appreciating what others are visibly enjoying, to his utter disbelief. In cinema halls, a mild laugh or cheer at some dialogue or something on the screen may trigger a round of applause as though unconsciously automatons mimicking each other so as not to look stupid.
The study results would be corroborated by what happens in political or other professional rallies. One or two mavericks on the platform raise their hands in a clapping gesture setting off applause in sections of the gathering, if not the whole crowd. This is a typical claptrap, an artifice or expedient for winning applause from the public. This is a pretentious and insincere way of inducing a favourable reaction; one might also call it a strategic ploy to make the rally warm up and gel.
In a broader perspective, Jagoron Mancho had a beginning in a few people filing closely by and gradually forming into a massive rally on a progressive scale egged on by a sense of liberation. The Hefazat-e Islam's blockade, long march and the gathering around Shapla Chattar were the products of a rallying cry of their own.
On the darker side, mob psychology or dynamic, once a strange phenomenon has been fathomed. People are getting increasingly acquainted with its power, for good or evil. It takes one to start beating a mugger or a car hijacker, and then an epidemic of hands pommel the delicate human body out of life.
These splintered glasses keep mirroring our visage.
The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
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