Yes, sometimes people pretend to like something just to be polite, and that can be disappointing. I don’t know if it’s worse than a lack of enthusiasm? I think

Yes, sometimes people pretend to like something just to be polite, and that can be disappointing. I don’t know if it’s worse than a lack of enthusiasm? I think as a performer you’d rather have polite applause than none at all. But it can be more confusing. Assuming that’s what they’re doing seems like a bad habit to get into, though. Someone who’s experiencing something for the first time is going to have enthusiasm for things that are old hat to an expert, and in that case cynicism just kills the moment. (See: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/) I think you just need to learn to live with ambiguity.