ABSTRACT
Unlike many social conventions that proved to be passing fads, applause appears to be a remarkably stable facet of human culture. Although its manifestations have varied from the fluttering of fans of Victorian ladies, to hearty overhead clapping and catcalls of less “refined” concert-goers, the desire to express approval through a culturally-specified display has been in existence for millennia. Demonstrating the perceived importance of applause, French theater and opera companies of the 1800s hired claques, professionals who led others in applause to secure encores and educate audiences on the finer points of the performance. Using a dynamic game theory model, the present work looks at how applause dynamics emerge from the interaction of individual desires. What are the benefits that drive applause? What are the costs that work to end it? How do the costs and benefits of an individual interact with those of others in the audience? Despite some simplifying assumptions made in the present model, it offers robust predictions of applause in audiences of varying sizes responding to events of varying levels of “impressiveness.” More generally, this work demonstrates how a complex social behavior can be modeled with few assumptions and free parameters.
