Guilty Pleasures

We are all guilty of it, it is a pleasure in which we all indulge. It is as if a part of us drives us to do it, a genetic disposition? Yet, for such conspicuous an act, it is hardly given any attention. In all likelihood, you would have witnessed it the last time you were part of an audience. Is it all mindless conformity? Why on earth do we clap?

At the time of our birth, we are barely capable of anything remotely useful, but what we do, we excel at. We imitate, from facial expressions, to our first utterances of language. We develop progressively more complicated faculties, all because of a simple propensity toward imitation. Our greatest strength, however, is also our greatest weakness. While we adopt all the good aspects of our culture, we have no way to reject the numerous bad, sometimes even harmful elements. We probably clap for the same reason.

To gain some deeper insight into why we perform this mysterious act, we should look into the places that we do it most often, performances. From the ancient Greek orators, to Shakespearian plays, to today's modern music concerts, sports matches and award ceremonies. We bask in the talent of others for the purpose of entertainment, and then communicate our appreciation by clapping. But why clap? What gives bringing our hands together with reasonable rapidity in a random fashion such appeal? Why do we not instead make some special bodily gesture? Not noticeable enough? Why do we not shout our appreciation at the top of our voice? Too heterogeneous and inconsistent? These reasons are all plausible, but given the age at which we adopt the habit, it seems far more likely that we do so due to imitation of tradition.

It would be difficult to trace the origins of the clap, but there is no reason to suggest that this would be the only manner in which people have shown appreciation. We can imagine that other cultures have performed ritual sacrifices, cries, or perhaps even bodily gestures in appreciation of talent; clapping is very much a cultural phenomenon - it would have arisen for a number of reasons, good or bad, but continues to exist today as a tradition.