Rate My Professor David Matsumoto

David Matsumoto is a Professor of Psychology in the Psychology department at San Francisco State University, where he joined in 1989. He earned a B.A. with high honors, double majoring in psychology and Japanese, from the University of Michigan in 1981. He then obtained an M.A. in psychology in 1983 and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1986, both from the University of California, Berkeley. Matsumoto founded and directed San Francisco State University's Culture and Emotion Research Laboratory from 1989 until 2023. He is also the founder, president, and CEO of Humintell, LLC, established in 2009, which provides training in emotion, nonverbal behavior, deception detection, and culture. Additionally, he serves as series editor for Cambridge University Press's Culture and Psychology series and was the former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. Matsumoto regularly instructs personnel at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, the U.S. State Department including its Diplomatic Corps, Visa Services, Diplomatic Security, and Mobile Security Deployment groups, and holds positions such as Senior Research Fellow in the FBI Behavioral Science Unit and member of the FBI High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group Research Committee from 2012 to 2022.

Matsumoto's research specializations encompass culture and emotion, facial expressions of emotion, nonverbal behavior and gestures, cross-cultural communication, cultural adjustment, and deception. His studies suggest that facial expressions are innate and have examined emotion's role in inciting hostility among ideologically-based groups, with funding from the U.S. Department of Defense's Minerva Initiative—one of the first seven grants awarded in 2009—as well as the National Institute of Mental Health, Army Research Institute, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Defense Intelligence Agency, Department of Homeland Security, and others. He has authored or edited over 400 academic works, including key books such as Culture and Psychology, APA Handbook of Nonverbal Communication, Nonverbal Communication: Science and Application, Cross-Cultural Research Methods in Psychology, APA Handbook of Interpersonal Communication, APA Handbook of Intercultural Communication, and The Oxford Handbook of Culture and Psychology. Prominent journal articles include "Culture, emotion regulation, and adjustment," "Cultural similarities and differences in display rules," and "The spontaneous expression of pride and shame" (PNAS, 2008). Matsumoto is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, International Academy of Intercultural Research, and International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. He received the Excellence in Professional Achievement Award from San Francisco State University's Academic Senate in 2009.