The sound of happiness : What our applause Says About Us

Dr Raj Singh
How many times do you clap at a public function?
Not how many seconds.
How many actual claps?
Ten ? Fifteen ? Twenty ?
The next time you attend a cultural programme, a school function, a sports event, or a public lecture, try counting.
You may be surprised.
Researchers who study audience behaviour have found that the average applause after a performance lasts only about six seconds. At an average rhythm of about three claps per second, that amounts to roughly eighteen claps from each person.
Eighteen claps ! That is considered an ordinary applause.
Yet, if my observations are correct, many of us in Manipur probably do not even reach that number. We clap politely, briefly, almost as a formality. Sometimes our applause ends before the person being honoured has even returned to his or her seat.
I never paid much attention to this until I attended a cultural programme in Toronto several years ago.
The performance had ended. The chief performer bowed gracefully and stepped back. I expected a few seconds of applause followed by people quietly leaving the auditorium, exactly as we often do in Manipur.
Instead, something extraordinary happened.
The applause continued.
People rose to their feet. They kept clapping. Some cheered. Others whistled. The performer returned to the stage repeatedly to acknowledge the audience. Yet the applause refused to die.
The applause had lasted longer than many stage performances in Manipur.
As I watched, a curious thought crossed my mind.
Why do people in some societies applaud so generously while others appear almost reluctant to clap ?
Why are prolonged ovations common in places like Toronto, Vienna, London and Amsterdam, while they are comparatively rare in many parts of the Global South ?
And what does that reveal about a society ?
The question remained with me for a long time.
Gradually, I came to suspect that applause is far more than a response to a good performance.
It may also be a reflection of the emotional climate of a society.
More Than Just Clapping
Before we go further, it is useful to understand three expressions that are common in the performing arts.
An ovation is prolonged and enthusiastic applause offered as a mark of admiration or gratitude.
The word comes from ancient Rome, where victorious commanders were publicly honoured by cheering citizens.
A standing ovation is an ovation during which the audience rises from their seats. It signifies that ordinary applause is no longer enough to express appreciation.
A curtain call occurs when performers return to the stage after the performance to acknowledge the audience’s applause. If the applause continues, they return again and again, resulting in multiple curtain calls.
In simple terms, the ovation is the applause; the standing ovation is applause intensified by standing; and the curtain call is the performer’s response to that appreciation.
These traditions may appear ceremonial.
In reality, they reveal something profound about human society.
The Ancient Language of Appreciation
Applause is one of humanity’s oldest social rituals.
Long before certificates, trophies, medals and social media likes, people expressed appreciation with their hands.
The ancient Greeks applauded poets and actors. The Romans elevated applause almost into a civic institution. Historical accounts suggest that some Roman emperors even maintained organized groups whose task was to initiate applause and encourage others to join.
The underlying idea was remarkably simple.
Achievement deserves recognition.
Recognition deserves public expression.
That principle has survived for more than two thousand years.
When Applause Makes History
History records some astonishing examples of public appreciation.
The legendary opera tenor Plácido Domingo received an incredible 101 curtain calls after a performance of Otello in Vienna. Imagine returning to the stage 101 times because the audience simply refused to stop applauding.
At the Cannes Film Festival, Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth received a standing ovation lasting about twenty-two minutes.
Several other films have received ovations lasting between fifteen and twenty minutes.
These figures become even more remarkable when compared with ordinary applause.
If the average applause lasts six seconds, then a twenty-minute standing ovation represents nearly two hundred times the normal duration.
Thousands of people voluntarily decide that six seconds are not enough.
That is no longer mere courtesy.
It is a collective emotion.
The Psychology of Applause
Scientists who study audience behaviour have discovered something fascinating.
Applause is contagious.
One person begins clapping. Others quickly join.
Within seconds, hundreds or thousands of people become synchronized in one shared emotional experience.
The French sociologist Émile Durkheim described such moments as collective effervescence-those rare occasions when individuals temporarily experience themselves as part of ‘something larger than themselves.’
In other words, applause is not simply an individual action.
It is society celebrating itself through the achievement of one of its members.
The Hidden Ingredient: Emotional Security
Here lies the deeper question.
Why do some societies seem more generous with applause ?
Perhaps because applause requires emotional security.
To applaud sincerely is to celebrate another person’s success without feeling threatened by it. It requires confidence rather than insecurity. Gratitude rather than resentment. Hope rather than despair.
Communities burdened by prolonged fear, conflict or uncertainty often become emotionally guarded. Their energy is directed towards coping with life’s challenges rather than celebrating others’ achievements.
This does not mean they are incapable of appreciation.
It simply means that appreciation becomes less visible.
In stable societies, people possess greater emotional space to celebrate excellence.
Their applause may therefore be directed not only towards the performer, but also reflect their own sense of confidence and well-being.
The Culture of Appreciation
Observe audiences in Toronto, Vienna or London.
People applaud musicians. Teachers. Athletes. Volunteers. Community workers. Scientists. Young students.
Recognition becomes part of everyday culture.
Children grow up seeing effort appreciated.
Achievement becomes attractive because society rewards it not only with success but also with public respect.
Applause becomes social fuel.
People strive because they know their efforts will be noticed.
A culture that celebrates excellence often produces more excellence.
Why Are We Different ?
Now, let us return to Manipur.
This small State has produced Olympians, world champions, classical dancers, folk musicians, scientists, writers and entrepreneurs far beyond what our population would suggest.
Yet we often appear hesitant to celebrate one another.
We criticize generously. We applaud sparingly.
Recognition frequently arrives only after someone has succeeded outside the State (Remember how late local appreciations came for the movie “Boong”).
Why ?
Part of the answer may lie in our collective experience.
For decades, Manipur has lived under insurgency, counter-insurgency, economic blockades, bandhs, ethnic tensions, political uncertainty and, most recently, one of the gravest social conflicts in its modern history.
Such experiences leave psychological footprints.
A society exposed to prolonged stress naturally develops habits of emotional caution.
People become more alert to threats than to achievements.
They notice failures more quickly than successes.
Gradually, criticism becomes instinctive while appreciation becomes restrained.
The Cost of Not Applauding
This matters far more than we imagine.
Human beings flourish when their efforts are recognized.
Children need encouragement. Teachers need appreciation. Artists need audiences. Scientists need recognition. Volunteers need gratitude.
Communities themselves need reasons to feel proud.
A society that rarely celebrates excellence risks creating generations who quietly conclude that extraordinary effort is not worth making.
Recognition inspires aspiration. Its absence slowly weakens it.
Applause, therefore, is not merely etiquette. It is an investment in human potential.
Applause as Social Therapy
If prolonged stress has weakened our culture of appreciation, can rebuilding it be part of our recovery ?
Perhaps it can.
Not because applause alone can solve deep political or social problems.
It cannot.
Conflict requires justice. Peace requires dialogue. Development requires good governance.
But psychologists have consistently shown that appreciation changes both the receiver and the giver.
The person receiving recognition gains confidence, motivation and a sense of belonging.
The person offering appreciation experiences grati- tude, positive emotion and greater social connection.
That is why applause may be viewed as a small form of social therapy.
Imagine every school in Manipur giving generous applause to students who display honesty, perseverance or kindness.
Imagine village volunteers, nurses, sanitation workers, teachers, artists, scientists and entrepreneurs receiving genuine standing ovations from their communities.
Imagine our public functions becoming occasions where achievement is celebrated as enthusiastically as political speeches are applauded.
None of these gestures will immediately end violence, unemployment or mistrust.
But they will slowly change something equally important.
They will change the emotional atmosphere in which society lives.
Every sincere applause sends a simple message:
‘I see your effort;’ ‘Your contribution matters;’ ‘Your success enriches all of us;’
Those are precisely the messages that divided societies need to hear more often.
A Standing Ovation for Manipur
Perhaps what Manipur needs today is not only political reconciliation but also cultural reconciliation.
We need to rebuild the habit of appreciating one another.
Applauding a singer requires no agreement on politics.
Standing for a young scientist requires no agreement on ethnicity.
Cheering for an athlete requires no ideological agreement.
Applause is one of the few human languages that transcends almost every social boundary.
It creates moments when people experience themselves not as members of competing groups but simply as fellow human beings sharing admiration.
That is no small achievement.
The longer I reflect on that evening in Toronto, the more convinced I become that the sound of applause tells us something important.
Not everything. But something.
It tells us whether we still possess the emotional capacity to celebrate excellence.
It tells us whether admiration has survived envy.
It tells us whether hope has survived hardship.
A society cannot clap its way out of conflict, poverty or political crisis.
Yet societies do not recover only through peace accords and Government policies.
They also recover through countless small cultural habits that gradually replace negativity with confidence, suspicion with trust, and indifference with appreciation.
Perhaps the next social movement Manipur needs is not another protest movement but a movement of appreciation.
The next time you attend a public function, count your claps.
If you stop at ten, continue to twenty.
If you stop at twenty, continue a little longer.
Not because the performer expects it. But because society needs it.
For applause is more than sound. It is hope made audible.
And perhaps the day Manipuris learn once again to applaud one another with generosity will also be the day we begin to lift ourselves, clap by clap, above the shadows of conflict and towards the happier society we all long to build.
This column, “Beyond the Obvious,” seeks to examine public controversies not through emotional binaries but through deeper historical memory, constitutional logic, and compa- rative political thought - in the belief that durable peace lies not in louder demands, but in wiser design.