By invitation only? An analysis of invited and uninvited applause.

To investigate the relative importance of invited and uninvited applause, 15 speeches delivered by the leaders of the three principal British political parties to their annual party conferences (1996-2000) were analyzed. Each incidence of applause was coded along three dimensions (invited/uninvited, presence/absence of rhetorical devices, and synchronous/asynchronous with speech). The results provided strong support for the distinction between invited and uninvited applause. Applause invited through rhetorical devices was significantly more likely to be synchronous than asynchronous with speech, whereas uninvited applause was almost exclusively asynchronous; however, uninvited applause occurred more often in the presence of rhetorical devices than in their absence. The implications of these results for the concepts of invited and uninvited applause are discussed.