How does an audience collectively decide the applause is over?

Question

I think most people figure they’ll clap until the applause dies down. But if everyone were to think like that we would clap forever. How does the audience hive mind, for lack of a better term, stop the applause?

In: Other

Answer 1

Depends on where you are. At military events the rule we are usually given when clapping while in a formation is that you all stop clapping when the highest ranking person stops.