boo

Boos are demonstrative expressions of displeasure with which disappointed or indignant audience members judge performances such as plays, concerts, film premieres or other performances . As a particle , boo belongs to the part of speech of interjections .

process

As a rule, “Boo” is actually called out loud. This happens either in a specific moment of impetus (as a negative counterpart to the applause from the scene ) or instead of applause at the end of the performance. If there are several boos, or if these even predominate, one often speaks of a performance being “booed”. In any case, booing is considered impolite and inconsiderate towards the performers, but it is especially common at premieres in drama and opera. Boos against directors (and, less often, conductors) are much more common there than those against actors or singers. Even the spectators at Roman gladiator fights are said to have booed their displeasure against the politics of the respective ruler.

Alternatives

Another way of expressing displeasure from the audience is the whistling . Here members of the audience try to prevent an unpopular person from speaking by loudly whistling , by drowning out their utterances. If many people take part, it is often referred to as a whistle concert . The whistle is more common at speeches and political events, but also in stadiums during sporting events.

Up until the beginning of the 20th century, hissing was also common in the theater .

Boo test

Since booing at a person is a public expression of opinion against this person, the so-called “boo test” is used in opinion research to identify the opinion camp against which public opinion is directed. Here, the respondent is told of an incident in which a is booed by two speakers on a subject, and asked what the respondent thinks that the speaker was booed: the one who is for , or the one who is against a particular viewpoint has pronounced. Against the background of the theory of the spiral of silence , it can be determined which opinion camp is under public pressure.

literature

• Steven E. Clayman: Booing: The Anatomy of a Disaffiliative Response . In: American Sociological Review , 58, 1993, pp. 110-130, JSTOR 2096221
• Donald L. Greer: Spectator Booing and the Home Advantage: A Study of Social Influence in the Basketball Arena . In: Social Psychology Quarterly , 46, 1983, pp. 252-261, JSTOR 3033796
• Daniel C. O'Connell, Sabine Kowal: Applause and Other Audience Reactions . In: Communicating with One Another - Toward a Psychology of Spontaneous Spoken Discourse , pp. 175ff.

Web links

Wiktionary: Booing  - explanations of meanings, word origins , synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stefan Rebenich: The 101 most important questions - antiquity . CH Beck, Munich 2006 ISBN 3-406-54105-4 , p. 129.
2. ^ Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann : Public opinion - our social skin . Langen Müller, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7844-2835-5 , here p. 368
3. ↑ Thomas Roessing: Public opinion - the exploration of the spiral of silence . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2009, ISBN 978-3-8329-4054-6 , here p. 83