Nonverbal Communication and Leakage in the Behavior of Biased and Unbiased Teachers

In this article we present a brief exposure method of assessing teachers' verbal and nonverbal behavior. Highly biased and unbiased teachers were videotaped addressing their classes, and judges rated randomized 10-s clips. Leakage, the transmission of more positive affect in controllable channels while negative affect is given away involuntarily in less controllable channels, was assessed by linear contrast analyses of three channels in a leakage hierarchy: transcript of speech content, face, and body. As hypothesized, biased teachers demonstrated systematic and substantial leakage effects in affective variables (factor-based, composite scores reflecting dogmatic behavior and negative affect), whereas unbiased teachers showed no leakage. As predicted, no leakage was found for any group in active teaching behavior, a nonaffective composite variable. Biased and unbiased teachers did not differ in comparisons for each separate channel. These findings are consistent with previous findings on differences between biased and unbiased teachers.