In a pivotal scene from the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand, a mutant claps his hands and blasts a shockwave across a battlefield. In a theater somewhere, Sunny Jung watched—and wondered. “It made me ...

This post is co-authored by Ron Riggio and nonverbal communication expert Alan Crawley. When and why do we clap? We get startled, and we clap. We try to get our dog’s (or our child’s) attention, and ...

Applause is greatly revered as a symbol of warmth and adoration from a crowd. TV shows that film in front of a live audience often cue their audiences to clap in order to generate the desired auditory ...

Hand clapping is ubiquitous behavior for humans across time and cultures, serving many different purposes: to signify approval with applause, for instance, or to keep time to music. Acousticians often ...

What is the sound of one hand clapping? You may have encountered this cryptic question at some point. It is a koan, or riddle, devised by the 18th-century Zen Buddhist master Hakuin Ekaku. Such ...

If you’ve ever attended a classical concert, you’ve probably experienced that awkward, hesitant half-clapping that sometimes occurs at the end of a symphonic movement: The music stops, the hall falls ...

How do you decide when to start clapping after a virtuoso performance? And when do you stop? Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. New ...