The Mistiming of Applause in Political Speeches

Abstract

According to Atkinson, speakers at political meetings invite applause through rhetorical devices, which indicate when and where applause is appropriate. Hence, speech and applause are characterized by a high degree of synchronization. Thus, incidences of unsynchronized applause are of considerable theoretical interest. An analysis of such mismatches is reported based on six speeches delivered by the three leaders of the principal British political parties to their respective party conferences in 1996 and 1997. Only a mean 61% of applause incidences were fully synchronized with speech. Four principal types of mismatch were identified: isolated applause, delayed applause, interruptive applause, and applause interrupted by the speaker. Mismatches occurred when rhetorical devices were ineffective. They also occurred in the absence of rhetorical devices when applause was not invited. It is concluded that Atkinson's theory of rhetoric needs to be modified to take account of a distinction between invited and uninvited applause.According to a theory proposed by Atkinson (e.g., 1983Atkinson (e.g., , 1984aAtkinson (e.g., , 1984b, a limited range of rhetorical devices such as contrasts and three-part lists are consistently effective in evoking applause from audiences. Atkinson further observes that applause is typically closely synchronized with speech, which he cites as strong evidence that rhetorical devices function as signals indicating when and where is an appropriate place to applaud (Atkinson, 1984a, pp. 33-4). Thus, in testing the validity of this theory, incidences where applause is not fully synchronized with speech are of considerable theoretical interest. If such incidences occur with considerable frequency, this would suggest at the very least that rhetorical devices do not function as effectively as Atkinson has argued or, more fundamentally, that they are not as important as Atkinson proposes. Such failures in synchronization between speech and audience applause are termed mismatches and form the focus of the study reported in this article.

Effects of applause magnitude and musical style on listeners’ evaluations of wind band performances

“…For politicians, applause has been referred to as a 'barometer of approval' (Atkinson, 1984, p. 13), which is often used as a measure of their public reception. In the political arena, researchers have examined audience applause as a function of a political speaker's usage of rhetorical devices (Heritage & Greatbatch, 1986), jokes (Bull & Wells, 2002), and actual speech content (Bull & Noordhuizen, 2000). Atkinson (1984) explains that '[d]epending on whether [speakers] are greeted by frequent bursts of applause, heckling or complete silence, they will be deemed to have had a rapturous, hostile or indifferent reception' (p. 13).…”

Engaging the crowd

“…Reward applause is given after an especially appreciated song or a musical solo of some kind as well as, of course, at the end of the performance. Because the rock and rap musical experience is more informal compared to other performances and speeches, the 'fear' of mistiming of applause from audience members is much lower [3]; individuals of this audience therefore often cheer and applaud in isolation without necessarily the rest of the audience joining. When looking at our rap competitions, the audience's reaction was even more diverse, including loud laughing and yelling comments as well as the names of the performers (e.g.…”

Understanding audience affiliation in response to political speeches in Japan

“…However, as an account of how applause occurs in political speeches, his analysis is arguably incomplete (Bull 2006). In a series of evaluative studies, Bull and his colleagues (Bull 2000(Bull , 2006Bull and Noordhuizen 2000;Bull and Wells 2002) have identified a number of concerns which they propose need to be addressed to provide a more comprehensive analysis of political applause.…”

“…A major limitation not only of Atkinson's research but of all the research reviewed above (Atkinson 1983(Atkinson , 1984a(Atkinson , 1984bHeritage and Greatbatch 1986;Bull 2000Bull , 2006Bull and Noordhuizen 2000;Bull and Wells 2006) is that it was based exclusively on British political speeches, delivered principally to the annual conferences of the three main British political parties (Conservative, Labour, and Liberal/Liberal Democrat). Hence, it is not clear to what extent these rhetorical techniques are utilised in other cultures, nor indeed in other situational contexts.…”

“…In the context of the implicit/explicit distinction, it was interesting to note the complete absence at Japanese political meetings of what has been termed isolated applause. These are incidents where only one or two people applaud, in contrast to collective applause from the audience as a whole; for example, in a study of six leader speeches at British party political conferences, isolated applause was found by Bull and Noordhuizen (2000) to account for 4.7% of all incidents of applause (both collective and isolated).…”