Perceptions Of Debater Effectiveness And Appropriateness As A Function Of Decreasingly Polite Strategies For Responding To Nonverbal Disparagement In Televised Political Debates

Scholars\u27 attention to televised political debaters\u27 nonverbal behavior has grown in recent years. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of a variety of strategies, varying in degree of politeness, for responding to an opponent engaging in strong nonverbal disagreement during a televised political debater\u27s speaking turn. Four hundred eight participants watched a purported televised political debate between candidates for mayor. In each of six versions, one debater engaged in strong nonverbal disagreement during his opponent\u27s opening statement. The opponent then responded with one of six decreasingly polite attempts to stop the debater from engaging in the nonverbal behavior. In general, direct, but not personally attacking, responses resulted in higher levels of perceived argumentation effectiveness and appropriateness when compared to not responding to the nonverbal behavior. The results for debater effectiveness were moderated by audience level of verbal aggressiveness