I am asian and have been in the U.S. for several years, and this has puzzled me for quite a while:
Every time I watch some public speech given by political figures, I am like "what is with those audiences?" Literally every 20 or 30 seconds, they cheer and clap like they never do it before. I understand at some points, the speech can be really exciting, cheerful and encouraging. But every 25 seconds? And when the person is just saying something like "Anger is not our solution"? Unlikely! I mean words like this are certainly wonderful but I don't think it is something that deserves cheering and clapping for 10+ seconds. Those audiences, unlike the Americans I meet in everyday life, who are cooler and calmer, seem to be so easily stimulated (sorry if this is not a proper word, but you get what I mean), even manipulated, like 5 years old kids - whenever parents say we are going out tomorrow, they cheer.
Are these cheers genuine or just a formality? Or in environment like a public speech, influenced by peer pressure, you are not yourself any more? In my country, if people do it, the speaker will be greatly embarrassed and annoyed because it is more like a passive aggressive way of saying "we have had enough of you", because those cheers are actually stopping or covering what the speaker are saying.