Nonverbal communication and the judgment of leadership.

Su?nna~y.-A 2 X 2 X 2 factorial design was used to investigate the effects of (a) nonverbal communication, (b) sensory modality of presentation, and (c) sex of subject on person perceptions. Analysis of variance using Factor I ("Leadership") scores indicated a significant main effect for nonverbal communication for 55 college students. Does nonverbal communication affect the judgment of leadership? Previous research hu explored the relationship between a leader and a follower, but little consideration has been given to the function of nonverbal communication in the judgment of leadership. This disregard was characteristic of the early research (Gibbs, 1954) and was reported to exist in the more recent factorial approach (Gitter, Black, & Fishman, 1975). The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of nonverbal communication on perception of roles (leader and follower). It also tested the effect of mode of presentation of the message (audio-visual versus audio-only) and sex of subject on judgment of leadership. The subjects were 55 nonvolunteers. A balanced 2 x 2 x 2 design employed two levels of nonverbal communication (Strong vs Weak), two modes of presentation (Audiovisual vs Audio-only), and sexes of subjects. The subjects were randomly assigned to the four experimental treatments. The stimuli materials consisted of films of a professional actor photographed with a 16-mm sound movie camera delivering a 135-word monologue. To manipulate nonverbal communication the actor was filmed rwice; first, delivering the message and using his nonverbal communication to simulate the role of a "leader," while the second time he simulated the role of a "follower." The actor's task was to vary only the nonverbal aspects of the monologue (voice, gesture, facial contortion, etc.); his dress, lighting and setting remained constant. To manipulate the mode of presentation of the message, approximately half of the subjects were exposed to a sound film made of the actor delivering the communication. The remaining subjects were exposed to only a tape-recording made from the soundtrack of the film (the audioonly treatment). After exposure to the treatments, the subjects were administered 32 person-perception scales. The instrument was composed of 32 self-anchoring (0 to 100) bipolar scales intended to tap the subjects' evaluations of the source in terms of his rolestatus. The first stage of analysis involved 32 2 x 2 X 2 (nonverbal communication x mode of presentation x sex) analyses of variance which were performed on the data for each of the 32 Person Perception Scales. Results for the 32 analyses indicated that nonverbal communication produced a far greater number of significant differences than either mode of presentation or sex of subject. In order to summarize the results, the data generated by all of the scales were factor analyzed using the principal components method. This approach allowed for analyzing differences between treaunent groups in terms of a few underlying components rather than by the 32 scales. Factor I, extracted from the rotated matrix (Varimax rotation). accounted for 28% of the variance. It was named "Structure" on the basis of the scale items with loadings .5 and above. Factor 11, extracted from the rotated matrix, and named "Considera