<p>The fuel of a university is its reputation and prestige. Teaching ability does not aid in that cause, which is why research ability is more highly evaluated. Fortunately, Chicago seems to highly evaluate teaching ability in its search for professors, although even in Chicago’s case, research ability is likely viewed as incrementally more important.</p>
<p>I fear that the study you cite, warblersrule, has its data disproportionally influenced by public research universities, which provide a large portion of the quality research in the US. Public universities, even top schools like Michigan and Berkeley, do not seem to emphasize teaching at all in their recruiting. I would like to think that top privates are a bit better in that regard.</p>