The Role of Student Aggressive Communication Traits in the Perception of Instructor Ideological Bias in the Classroom

Abstract

Research indicates that Americans believe instructor political bias to be a serious problem in the college classroom, as many professors are considered a liberal elite. In light of scholarship suggesting that characteristics students bring with them to the classroom may influence their perception of instructor communication behaviors, the present study explores the role student aggressive communication traits play in students' dispositional inferences of their instructors holding an ideological bias and how students react to that inference in the college classroom. Results reveal that students' verbal aggressiveness predicts their perceptions of instructor ideological bias, whereas students' argumentativeness predicts their reactions to instructor ideological bias. Pedagogical implications and areas for future research are discussed.