How do more people Clap at your Story than have read it?

There are more than one answers offered, but I know the Real One

“The Shoats”, artpiece by this writer

I hate that this article will get more readership and applause than my “good stuff”. But such is the hack magic on sites like this. But I digress.

A phenomenon that plagues writers and not readers on Medium happens when 12 people show up as having read your story, but 27 have clapped for it. There is a plethora of candidate explanations that we must consider for why this happens.

• The story was so euphoric at the beginning, that the poor soul reading it couldn’t handle all the endorphins firing at once in the same sitting, but wanted to give the appropriate accolades now
• Medium has accidentally failed to actually metric how long viewers are spending on your piece
• Medium has discounted the number of people reading your piece (so as to limit payout)
• The clappers for the article were all speed-readers and so Medium didn’t believe a visitor could consume content so rapidly
• Dark Spiritual beings are harrassing you with mismatching information
• There is a lag in data analytics; it will later be determined that people might have finished reading your novella
• Elon Musk has bought Medium (jk — I’m actually still a semi-fan of the guy)

So … if you picked any of the first four, you’re not wrong. But I didn’t actually list the most correct answer.

The real reason you’re getting more applause than actual reads is because people are liars.

So, what are they lying about. A number of things actually.

1. They want you to believe they are interested and friendly
2. They want you to believe they like you’re work
3. They want you to follow them/clap them back
4. They are 12-step-Group junkies, and they have become addicted to “thumbs-upping anything that moves

But why would people lie about those things.

Because deceitful pleasantries — in order to curry favors — is the air we breathe in today. But how do the flatterers hope to…