The Paralanguage of Experimenter Bias

Past research suggested that specific paralinguistic (voice quality) cues may communicate the experimenter's bias to his subject. In the present study this hypothesis was tested under controlled conditions. Also studied was the interaction of evaluation apprehension with experimenter cuing in producing systematically biased subject responses. It was found that the paralinguistic cues influenced subjects' responses as hypothesized, the extent of the influence being in direct proportion to the strength of evaluation apprehension. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed, and techniques for increasing experimental control are suggested.