I think most people figure they’ll clap until the applause dies down. But if everyone were to think like that we would clap forever. How does the audience hive mind, for lack of a better term, stop the applause?
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In the case of live performances there are usually cues.
No one wants to be the only clapper. So, if a few people stop that triggers more people to stop that triggers even more people to stop. Kinda like an exponential decay.
To the best of my understanding it works similar to the purchase and selling of stocks. Everyone just has a general sense of how long an applause should last (how much value a particular stock has). If enough people stop clapping this causes other people to change how they feel; now they feel that enough time has passed and they also stop. With stocks, if enough people start selling quickly enough than it gives other people the impression that their stocks are losing value so they also sell.
Your hypothetical situation is correct; if you had enough independent thinkers in a crowd who decided they wouldn’t stop clapping then I guarantee other people would join in. Similarly in the stock market if you have enough people who believe strongly enough in the value of a stock to keep it than other people will catch on and the perceived value will be higher.
Some people determine length of clap based on how long they feel is a conventionally good length of time to clap, or the length of time that they feel like clapping. Like if they really like it, they’ll clap a long time, and if they are only oK about it, they’ll clap for a shorter length of time. Others will clap until they feel the clapping is dying down. Once the people who clap based on their feelings begin to stop clapping, the clapping will die down and then the people who clap based on following the lead of other people, will stop clapping. eventually the clapping will stop.
Of course, sometimes there are rules for how long to clap. These might take the form of people looking to someone of high status in the audience and doing what they do. Like if the king claps a long time, others clap as well. If the king gives a standing ovation, everyone else stands. and then there’s Josef Stalin and clapping, where clapping could be a matter literally of life or death: [https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trumps-very-soviet-fixation-on-applause](https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trumps-very-soviet-fixation-on-applause)
Honestly I think it depends on what their applauding and a general understanding of how long is acceptable. If its a polite applause its generally like, no more than 5 seconds, enough to show appreciation but not too long that if its a speaker or play the applause is going to interrupt the flow of the speech or show. At the end its up to how much the audience appreciated the performance, as it allows for a longer applause, the longer and louder the more appreciative.
As an example: in a play its acceptable after each scene to have a short applause and at the end its acceptable to have a longer one, and for concerts if the applause amd cheering is lively enough they might do an extra set called an encore. I think it’s concidered common knowledge, and i think most people kind of know how long depending on the situation. I dont think its a hive mind thing so much as an understanding of social ettiquette.
it is basically a majority vote. you stop clapping when the applause ceases, yes. but you also stop clapping when you think you had clapped enough given the quality of the performance.
Researchers have found that applause spreads like a ‘disease’ though an audience, with applause duration often not connected to the quality of the performance.
You can compare the stoping of it to a pack of fish that slow down together, there is the first one who stops than the other and so on like a domino
In our university, if audience didn’t like some speaker, it continued to applaud untill speaker left the stage.
Theory of mind, maybe?
Now, if you’ve ever played “last clap” you will know it never ends.
Even on the way back to the car park, there are opportunities to sneak in a percussive palm-to-palm.
I think most of it is down to social convention.
I’ve been to a few classical concerts in my hometown and there’s definitely a convention for that sort of gig, it’s pretty much set in stone. The audience is expected to continue their applause while the conductor leaves and returns to the stage twice, singles out sections of the orchestra for extra cheers, asks the orchestra to stand while they refuse to allow the conductor to take the applause on their own, before finally rising again for the final time. ITS FUCKING EXHAUSTING…
In my experience at rock and pop shows the audience usually takes their queues from the house lights/music – if they stay down you’re expected to stomp and shout for more, when they come up there’s no chance of an extra encore and it quickly dies.
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