Last night I attended a concert. The performers were local students from elementary through high school; there must have been a couple hundred total.
The venue was the fairly new theater at one of the area’s high schools—quite a nice place, actually. But one phenomenon that really bugs me was violently pounded into my ears last night—the tendency of people to scream as a supplement to applause. Why do people do that?
The audience was mostly parents—some grandparents and siblings and other assorted relatives and friends mixed in, but primarily adults. Each time a featured performer was introduced, as well as at the end of each performance, applause blended with screaming shook the place. While I was trying to figure out how (and why) these grown people were doing so much screaming, I realized that the performers themselves were doing much of the screaming, from the stage.
But the result was that I couldn’t applaud. Having very sensitive hearing, I had to cover my ears and therefore didn’t have my hands free for clapping. People may have thought me rude, but the performers weren’t hurting for affirmation, and the long-term result will probably be that I can hear better than my peers when I am old.
But I just don’t get it. What psychological process creates the need for screaming at a performance?