system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 - Why do rooms full of people suddenly seem to get quiet at the same time?

I'm sitting in a courthouse, waiting for election results to be announced. There's probably about 40 people in a medium-sized lobby, and everyone just simultaneously stopped talking for a couple of seconds. There was no stimulus to get people to stop talking. Why does this happen?
gpt
It's either a random coincidence that the natural pause in everyone's conversation happened at the same time, or it's a natural part of social behavior.

Humans are social animals, so we pay attention to those around us. In a courthouse, there are moments when everyone is waiting to go quiet for courtroom protocol. If one person gives a subtle signal to be quiet (perhaps something as simple as someone cutting off mid sentence), everyone will follow. Once everyone realized it was a false alarm, the conversations resumed.