I was at an outdoor performance this past weekend where the performers were trying to get the crowd all riled up.
“Are you excited? Let’s make some noise!”
That sort of thing.
I hate it, and I resent it — as I resent any attempts to artificially gin up emotions.
If you want me to be excited, do something exciting. If you want the crowd to make some noise, do something that makes them react.
I hate it myself — and after people respond, when the performer says something like “come on, I can barely hear you, one more time!”, I want to die from the sheer cringe of it. TBH I feel the same way about any kind of audience response, and when I was teaching I never asked non-rhetorical questions of the class.
But actions influence emotions too, and I don’t know how representative we are of the public. Our ears may be slightly more pointy than is normal.
If there are a lot of people who are going to enjoy the concert more if they force themselves to shout a bit, to help flip their mental switch into the “I’m not at work” mode, maybe it’s the right move and we should endure it.
People who do this for a living may have a better sense of what works in crowds than we do, after all.
Very true about the ears and the relative competence of the people involved.
The most cringy experience, IMO, is a charismatic worship service where the worship leader believes God is leading him to control / guide the emotions of the church.