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?
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I figure it’s like this:
Some fraction of people always clap briefly. They’re doing it as a ritual, they wouldn’t really clap longer or shorter if the thing was good/bad, they just routinely clap for 3-4 seconds because that’s what you’re supposed to do.
Some fraction of people clap until they notice the noise is starting to die down, and then they stop, that might be when that first fraction has stopped, but it might go on longer if all the rest of the audience is still clapping hard and the fact that the first fraction has stopped clapping is not really noticeable.
Some fraction of people clap on their own schedule, and don’t take much notice of the rest of the audience. They clap as long as they feel is appropriate, whether that’s very brief, or an extended ovation (they notice the rest of the audience a little, but their length of clapping is mostly self-determined). Most people have pretty good instincts about this and won’t go on for like a ridiculous amount of time, and whenever you get that awkward situation where all but one or two people have stopped clapping, those last few can usually be shamed into stopping with a look of disapproval from their neighbors.
Obviously this is all a very rough form of crowd intelligence, which is why applause usually doesn’t just stop suddenly on a dime, but gradually fades away over the course of a couple seconds. Different people notice at different times that its time to stop, that the applause is over. Some people notice early, some notice later. And you’ve probably encountered that funny situation where it *appeared* like the applause was about to end but then suddenly it picked back up again. That’s a situation where a bunch of people misread the signals, or were indecisive and changed their minds.
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