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Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You | 
 enlarge | Author: Sam Gosling
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $13.51
You Save: $11.49 (46%)
New (31) Used (8) from $13.51
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 3673
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 298
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0465027814
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.91
EAN: 9780465027811
ASIN: 0465027814
Publication Date: May 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20080721215920T
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Product Description
Does what’s on your desk reveal what’s on your mind? Do those pictures on your walls tell true tales about you? And is your favorite outfit about to give you away? For the last ten years psychologist Sam Gosling has been studying how people project (and protect) their inner selves. By exploring our private worlds (desks, bedrooms, even our clothes and our cars), he shows not only how we showcase our personalities in unexpected-and unplanned-ways, but also how we create personality in the first place, communicate it others, and interpret the world around us. Gosling, one of the field’s most innovative researchers, dispatches teams of scientific snoops to poke around dorm rooms and offices, to see what can be learned about people simply from looking at their stuff. What he has discovered is astonishing: when it comes to the most essential components of our personalities-from friendliness to flexibility-the things we own and the way we arrange them often say more about us than even our most intimate conversations. If you know what to look for, you can figure out how reliable a new boyfriend is by peeking into his medicine cabinet or whether an employee is committed to her job by analyzing her cubicle. Bottom line: The insights we gain can boost our understanding of ourselves and sharpen our perceptions of others. Packed with original research and fascinating stories, Snoop is a captivating guidebook to our not-so-secret lives.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
Good read, though a bit thin July 22, 2008
I enjoyed this book; Gosling is a clear thinker and he provides a accessible overview of interesting personality research. I have seen the results of some of his research in the past, and I admire his creativity and productivity. He is a very talented academic psychologist, and is doing good things for the field. In Snoop, though, he does a nice job of backing off from the strictly scholarly to try and make the work relevant to any curious mind. I found, for example, the discussion of how people use their stuff to make "identity claims" that can be either self-directed or other-directed particularly interesting to think about.
At the same time, I'm not giving the book five stars because it ultimately felt a bit thin in regard to the complexity of human personality. Most of the work discussed is based entirely on the "big 5" personality traits--which Gosling acknowledges are only the surface level of human personality (while he discusses the other levels, such as deeper personal concerns and dynamic narratives of self, they really get short shrift). So at the end of the book I find myself thinking, ok- so I can find some clues, if I triangulate, about whether or not someone is extroverted or conscientious in quirky things such as office pictures or music tastes. But then what does that really tell me that I don't get from just spending time with someone? What really is the whole point of "snooping?" Maybe just that it is kind of fun, and a nice example of an interesting and clearly thought through program of research that has broad appeal. That's probably enough.
Possibly mistitled, but still a good read July 15, 2008
This book seems to be more about personality than actual snooping (I wonder what it says about me that I want to read a book about snooping?), but it is an interesting read.
The author doesn't really get into the snooping until the end, and basically he says that you can find out more about a person by asking about their stuff (ex: Why did you pick that username? Why do you have a picture of someone else's puppy up at your desk?). There is usually a story that will come of those questions.
 Mildly interesting - geared to a young audience July 8, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I enjoy pop psychology books but I found this book a little tedious and droning at times. Some thoughts were interesting, such as identifiers being geared to influence the opinion of others versus to reassure yourself, but because the test subjects were nearly all college students I, as a person over 40, didn't find much of interest for the world that I inhabit. The author did not acknowledge that college students and that time in a person's life is unlike the bulk of an average person's existence. College and young adulthood is a time of trying out new identities, supporting causes, and learning about new social ideals, and few demands made on your time by children, aging parents, and spouses. So while it's interesting to hear about how young adults decorate their dorm rooms and how that reflects their personality it would be more interesting (to me) to visit people out of the academic milieu and learn how to make educated guesses about their personalities.
 Misadvertised... but not bad July 8, 2008
Most of "Snoop" could serve as a personality psychology primer as the author spends extensive amounts of time explaining basic aspects of his field. His discussion of methodology and literature review (that is, what he did it and research other people have done) is long and detailed. But the results are few and far in between and padded with caveats. If you were looking to find out what your blue lampshade or quirky lawn flamingo wallpaper says about you, this book will either give you no answers or at least, not tell you anything you didn't already know. Thus, it isn't a 'bad' book as much as the product of erroneous marketing. Gosling's research would have made a splendid article for a magazine like "The New Yorker" but as a book, it feels stretched out...
Interesting, but a few flaws June 27, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
About: University of Texas at Austin psychology professor Gosling fancies himself a "snoopologist" and studies how people's belongings exhibit their personalities. While he believes belongings give clues to personality, he notes that it does not work for all folks in all situations. Personality is defined as "An individual's unique pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving that is consistent over time." (pg 28). Gosling uses the Big 5 personality traits (Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) to further break down the personalities he describes in the book and spends quite a bit of time going over the basics of these 5 traits. He discusses many studies of how certain behaviors and owned objects of humans fit these personality traits, and even analyzes the office of ABC News anchor Charles Gibson
Things I Thought Were Interesting:
* Only in extreme cases can you learn much from a person's refrigerator
* Formal dress tends to be a good indicator of conscientiousness
* People can match strangers to their cars better than chance
* Bedrooms, Facebook profiles and personal web sites tend to give reliable info on
personality
* Bedrooms of liberals tend to have a larger variety of books, music and art supplies, while conservatives have more flags, alcohol bottles and sports paraphernalia
* Male bedrooms have fewer photos of families and friends, closets that tend to be open with stuff on hooks and more hats and caps than female bedrooms
* In a job interview, dress and amount the applicant leans forward tends to give clues to job motivation
* A more personalized office means a higher commitment to the organization
* Maps in a space points to diverese interests and open-mindedness
Pros: Clear writing, sources cited (but not in-text), interesting "tidbits" of info found throughout
Cons: Parts read like a primer on social psychology and personality, which leaves too little room for talk about people's "stuff" and makes the book seem to be more about what humans do than what they own. People whose work he cites gave him blurbs for the book (tit for tat perhaps?)
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