Effects of incentive, feedback, and manner of presenting the feedback on leader behavior

Attempted to determine whether or not the content of a leader's verbal behavior could be altered by manipulation of the type and manner of feedback and incentive. 96 groups of 4 male undergraduates, with 1 leader per group, served as Ss in a 2 * 2 * 2 design. During a case discussion, the E varied the 3 independent variables and recorded the content of the leader's verbal behavior by means of the Bales category system. It was found that (a) positive feedback made the leaders more task oriented, whereas negative feedback increased negative social-emotional behavior; (b) the incentive decreased the number of questions asked; and (c) the manner of presenting the feedback (publicly or privately) produced no changes in verbal behavior when analyzed as a main effect, but significant interactions were found.