In the interview below by DeCodeur du Non-Verbal on analyzing nonverbal behaviors, Dr. Matsumoto was asked by French body language consultant Romain Collignon, about how he got started in analyzing nonverbal behaviors and expressions of emotion. See Dr. Matsumoto’s response below.
“As an undergraduate, I was initially interested in how children (ages 3-5) could understand their parents’ emotional states even though they could not understand their words. Therefore I decided to delve into this and do a research a project on how preschoolers can understand emotions expressed in para linguistic cues and not words.“
This is what started Dr. Matsumoto’s path into the research of Cross-Cultural Communication and Nonverbal Behaviors.
Upon a trip to Japan for Judo training, Dr. Matsumoto ended up collecting additional data on nonverbal cues and when he returned was able to do a cross-culture study on judgments of nonverbal behavior, which he then pursued in graduate school at UC Berkeley and continues to conduct research in today.
“There are some professions where it is very useful to learn about microexpressions because one wants to gain an edge in understanding how a person is actually feeling. In those professions learning microexpresssions is useful.“