Theatre really is best live

The Challenge

With the rise of Netflix, YouTube, and on-demand movie content, "we wanted to understand why performances are 'best live'" said Martine Parnell, Chief Marketing Officer at Encore Tickets. As theatre goers know, there really is no substitute for being there in the audience. The challenge was to find a way to measure that experience and understand how and why watching performances live is different from watching them on a screen.

The Solution

Using biometric wristbands that track physiological signals linked to the autonomic nervous system -- which in turn relates to emotion and arousal -- ACN Labs researchers monitored audience response to a live Dreamgirls performance and found remarkable changes in their heart rates.

During the performance, the audience's hearts spent an average of 28 minutes beating in an elevated range between 50% and 70% of their maximum heart rate -- the zone identified by the British Heart Foundation as optimal for promoting cardiovascular fitness and stamina. So although they were seated for the performance, audience members spent nearly half an hour engaged in healthy cardio exercise, comparable to the changes in heart rate seen in professional tennis players during bursts of highly intense exertion such as long and fast rallies.

Their heart rates also showed a wide range of highs and lows during the performance, consistent with the fact that being in a live audience increases the emotional intensity of the experience. By the end of the first act, heart rate had nearly doubled from its resting state at the beginning; by the second act, it had tripled. When the ACN Labs researchers compared the live audience's heart rates to a similar-sized group who watched the Dreamgirls movie instead, the range for the live performance was far greater.

Key Findings

Finally, the performance was so arousing that audiences' hearts not only beat faster and covered a wider range, they began to beat together in synchrony -- the audience's hearts were literally beating together. This sort of physiological coordination between people is a crucial aspect of human social life and bonding, previously reported in other extraordinary situations like watching family members walk over coals, and when romantic couples sit next to each other. Experiencing the live theatre performance was extraordinary enough to overcome group differences and produce a common physiological experience. Crucially, when a similar-sized sample of people watched the Dreamgirls movie instead of the live performance, their heart rates did not synchronise.

In smaller groups of people, heart rate coordination has been linked to team performance, trust and empathy. In other words, the coordinated physiological response seen during the live performance may help to break down pre-existing social barriers and bring people together.

With these results, Encore Tickets demonstrated that being part of a live audience really is a powerful and engaging experience, and that performances really are "best live". The research received widespread press coverage, including in The Standard, the New York Times, The Stage, the Daily Mail and the Sun.

“You see comparable changes in heart rate in professional tennis players during bursts of highly intense exertion such as long and fast rallies”

— Dr. Joe Devlin, ACN

“Experiencing the live theater performance was extraordinary enough to overcome group differences and produce a common physiological experience”

— Dr. Joe Devlin, ACN

For additional information on consumer neuroscience, download our free Guide to Quality Neuromarketing.