The rationale for the following unsystematic review article is to provide a dense description of clapping behavior from an ethological, psychological, anthropological, sociological, ontological, and even physiological perspective. The article delves into its historical uses, possible biological-ethological evolution, and primitive and cultural polysemic-multipurpose social functions. It explores the different distal and immediate messages transmitted by the simple act of clapping, to its more complex attributes like synchronicity, social contagion, as a device of social status signaling, soft biometric data, and its, till now, mysterious subjective experience. The subtle distinction between clapping and applause will be explored. A list of primary social functions will be introduced based on the literature on clapping. In addition, a series of unresolved questions and possible research avenues will be suggested. In contrast, out of the scope of the essay and published as a second article will be the contents of clapping morphological variations and a comprehensive description of purposes achieved through them.
Keywords: Applause; Clapping; Social contagion; Synchrony.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.