Ever been to a conference, seminar, or speech where, after the speaker finished, everyone (including you) erupted into applause? If this sounds familiar, I’ve got a question for you: why did you clap?
You might say, “Well, the speaker said something worth appreciating.” Fair enough. But why express that appreciation through clapping specifically? Why not stomp your feet on the ground or bow while sitting in your chair? Why have we collectively agreed that applause signals admiration, and why do we clap in the first place?
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The Science of Making Noise
Let’s be honest—clapping is actually one of the most disruptive sounds humans commonly make. It’s loud, creates commotion, and can be downright chaotic. And since clapping is something anyone can do without special training, it also serves as an incredibly effective attention-grabbing tool.
Imagine this scenario: You’re on a crowded bus early morning. Everyone’s still half-asleep, grumpy, and heading to work or school. Someone coughs—nobody even glances in their direction. But if that same person suddenly started clapping in the middle of the bus? I guarantee 100% of people would stare at them. They might even be considered slightly unhinged, especially if they’re clapping for no apparent reason. At minimum, they’d get disgusted looks or stern hushing.
This tells us something important: clapping, in itself, is just an annoying noise.
From Annoying Noise to Social Expression
So how did this irritating sound transform from mere noise into a social expression we use to convey various emotions like excitement, encouragement, and admiration?
British literary scholar Stephen Connor offers one of the most compelling explanations for why we clap. On both physiological and psychological levels, Connor explains that the impulse to clap often stems from an overflow of enthusiasm generated within us. As an immediate reaction to express excitement, we start clapping.
You might ask, “But why clapping specifically?” Well, it’s not always clapping. Connor argues that when humans are filled with intense excitement, it creates tremendous energy that language and verbal expression simply can’t contain. At that point, we resort to releasing this energy through other means.
To visualize this, watch a die-hard sports fan when their team scores. What happens? They’ll suddenly jump up, scream, and clap like crazy. After releasing that enormous surge of energy, they’ll calm down and perhaps say something appropriate to the moment like, “Thank goodness, finally!” The excitement affected them, created this massive energy that needed an outlet—and it emerged as clapping or some other spontaneous movement they didn’t necessarily plan to make.
Beyond Instinct: Deliberate Applause
Now you might wonder: if clapping is a natural reaction born from excessive excitement, why do we deliberately use it to encourage people on stage, for instance, when it’s not spontaneous at all?
Animal behaviorist Desmond Morris, who specializes in human behavior, proposed an explanation for how clapping evolved beyond pure instinct. In certain contexts, he suggests, clapping literally means encouragement or a pat on the back. If your friend accomplishes something in life while standing next to you, you might show support by hugging them or patting them to demonstrate your encouragement and motivate them to keep going.
But what if that same friend is standing far away from you, sharing one of their achievements? You can’t encourage them through those intimate gestures we mentioned. So instead, you clap—and they understand you’re encouraging them, happy about what they’ve accomplished.
Generally, all gestures are interpreted according to their context. Just as we all agree that a thumbs-up looks like this and a stop signal looks like that, we also collectively agree that applause symbolizes encouragement.
The Social Psychology of Clapping
Beyond being an involuntary reaction to excessive excitement, we’ve also deliberately transformed clapping into something intentional through a social phenomenon called symbolization. This is our ability to express feelings through non-verbal communication in ways the recipient can understand—usually through facial expressions or gestures like hand signals or eye winks.
But there’s also a lesser-known aspect to applause. If a child is sitting in a theater not understanding the story, jokes, or anything else, you’ll notice they still clap when everyone else does. And it’s not just children—you yourself might clap during a performance when an actor enters, even before they’ve done anything, or even for an unknown novice actor.
According to a study published in The Royal Society journal in 2013, an individual’s contribution to applause with the surrounding audience in a theater rarely relates to their personal opinion. It’s an obligatory clapping phenomenon linked to collective behavior. In plain language: we enjoy joining the hype.
Truthfully, this doesn’t stem from a lack of personality. Humans psychologically crave belonging to the community they consider themselves part of, which is why collective behavior influences us.
The Historical Evolution of Applause
To understand exactly when we started using clapping to express encouragement or approval, we need to travel back in time to the 6th century BCE. During this period, specifically in Athens, constitutional legislator Cleisthenes wanted to create a method for people to follow in order to express approval of their leader without requiring the leader to personally meet, greet, and speak with each audience member individually so that person could express appreciation for their efforts.
After considering multiple ways of showing emotion, he found that the easiest thing everyone could do was clap. He then established clapping as a unified sound to express admiration, encouragement, and approval.
Hundreds of years later, specifically in the 4th century BCE, theaters also adopted this idea. To teach audiences when to clap and when not to, people were appointed in theaters whose job was to clap, be moved, cry, or laugh loudly so that the belonging instinct in the rest of the audience would kick in, and they too would start clapping, being moved, or laughing.
Modern Clapping: From Physical to Digital
With today’s technological revolution, you rarely find people attending plays in theaters, meetings, or presentations in person—almost everything is online. After this dramatic evolution in presentation methods, it became necessary for clapping to evolve too. This is where social media reactions come into play.
Digital expert and developer Ramit Sethi conducted a simple experiment from which we can infer the psychology of social media in general. Ramit would like every photo of anyone that appeared in his news feed. The result? Ramit’s follower count increased by approximately 30 followers daily. People even started messaging him personally, sometimes leading to actual invitations to parties or outings.
This illustrates how much interaction with people’s posts and photos encourages them and gives them confidence in themselves and their opinions. This is exactly what we said earlier about applause, but this time in the virtual world rather than the real one.
It’s important to note that reactions—the modern version of applause—are among the main causes of social media addiction. This is because humans naturally love talking about themselves and feeling encouraged by those around them. Social media provides a fertile environment for this.
The Uniqueness of Applause as Sound
If you recall, at the beginning we mentioned that clapping is considered one of the most annoying sounds humans can make. At that point, we didn’t discuss sounds that might come from the larynx, like screaming. Screaming is also a very annoying sound that causes tension for everyone present. However, on the flip side, screaming is essentially singing—but singing involves controlling vocal pitches.
If you’ve ever seen an opera singer, you’ll notice they’re actually screaming, but they’re controlling the pitch of their scream, thus producing sound in a sweet way that pleases the ears. Clapping doesn’t have this quality because nobody can control the sound of each clap. Every time you clap and hit your hands together, the frequency of the sound changes, and consequently, the tone changes. That’s why clapping—now, 1,000 years ago, or even 1,000 years from now—will always sound annoying.
Why This Matters
Understanding the psychology behind why we clap gives us insight into human behavior that extends far beyond applause itself. It shows how social conventions develop, how we communicate non-verbally, and how even the most seemingly simple gestures carry complex psychological weight.
Next time you find yourself automatically joining in applause, you might pause (briefly!) to consider what’s really happening in that moment—a beautiful intersection of personal emotion, social psychology, and ancient tradition all expressed through the simple act of bringing your hands together.
So what do you think? Has this changed how you’ll think about applause next time you’re at an event? Or will you just clap along without a second thought? Either way is perfectly fine—after all, that’s what makes us human.
