In the previous essay I mentioned the fact that applause can become addictive. And that’s not without a reason. I found a nice explanation for this in Desmond Morris book “Intimate Behaviour” (1997 edition), which explains many forms of human behaviour and also shows the consequences of this for our own bodytalk. Do yourself a favour, read the book.

Applause(1)

First looking at the behaviour of babies, Morris tells that “it is as if the baby, seeing the mother approaching, makes a movement in which the arms are brought out and round as if to hold her. But her body is not there yet to be held, and so the arms continue in the arc of embracing until the hands meet with a clap.”
This embracing comes back in the behaviour of performers who open their arms to receive the applause. It is in fact an act of wanting to embrace the whole audience. That of course is not possible, so the arms are held open. This means that when you take an applause cue (terrible word by the way), you are opening up to the audience in order to embrace them. They embrace you (as if they’re patting on your back) in return with applause, which is more of a derived form of embracing.
“When we applaud a performer, we are, in effect, patting him on the back from a distance. …, you will find out that you do not bring both hands together with equal force. One tends to take the role of the performer’s back and the other does the vigorous vacuum back-patting on it.”

All the forms of applause, back patting, waving, etc. are expressions of emotions. Think about this. It means that you can use this to your advantage, because you understand the basic principle behind the movement that you use. And that’s exactly why some people know how to use an applause cue, because they studied it as such.

But this also explains why we like applause so much: because it’s the basic back patting from people that we need throughout all our life. We need contact and appreciation from others, otherwise our social needs are not met. (A very nice story about pets in this context can be found in the book too.) Social needs that are so basic, that we need them. And when you get a specific appreciation every time you do your magic or tell your jokes, or whatsoever, your basic social needs are met and you’ll feel fine. You feel appreciated. And that can become addictive.

[1] Based on Desmond Morris (1997), Intimate Behaviour. New York: Kodansha international, page 110-112. All italics are added.