Have you ever wondered why we clap to show content/appreciation? Is this a natural reaction or a conditioned reaction? Did I start clapping because I saw others around me clapping to express a certain sentiment, and in turn I came to associate the act of clapping with an emotion (conditioned response)? Or is the natural response to joy by any ape-like mammal a desire to make noise, and lacking sticks/stones/other objects that make noise, we resort to banging the palms of our hands together?
I have been to the ape exhibits at zoos, and those animals clap, and I would venture to guess that they did not learn to clap by watching humans on the other side of the glass clap out of joy. Or how about those monster.com ads with monkeys; those monkeys clap, though the “instinctive-ness” of the clapping by those trained monkeys is questionable at best.
When did we start clapping? And how? Ever wonder that?