The mysterious caller was a television producer planning a new reality series that would deal with the familiar, almost irresistible, human urge to snoop. Combine that with the evidence that the person is concerned with his (I'm now pretty sure the owner is a male) appearance and a coherent picture begins to emerge.

The CD was a compilation of house music, a genre stereotypically associated with gay clubs.

The photo showed that the door on the bathroom vanity wasn't closed properly and the hairdryer cord was hanging out the tube of skin cream had been squeezed in the middle, not from the end, and some crusty residue was stuck to the cap. Perhaps the person was Asian or Hispanic.

I noted that the hairs trapped on the brush were short, straight, and dark. 'Well, the brush is quite large, probably belonging to a man.' My theory was supported by the Polaroid photo, which showed a sink area with the surrounding surfaces generally devoid of sweet-smelling stuff and with levels of grime and (dis)organization more likely to be associated with males than females. As I inspected each item for clues I narrated my reasoning to the camera. A small tube of skin cream, a CD, slightly scratched, of dance music, a brown plastic hair brush, and a Polaroid photo of the owner's sink area. Read ExcerptĪs I removed the objects, I turned each one over in my hands. Packed with original research and fascinating stories, Snoop is a captivating guidebook to our not-so-secret lives. Bottom line: The insights we gain can boost our understanding of ourselves and sharpen our perceptions of others. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

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