Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You

Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You

by SAM GOSLING (Author)

Synopsis

Does what's in your bathroom or on your desk reveal what's on your mind? Is your choice of food or the way you sleep about to give you away? And why do handshakes display how outgoing we are more than our bedrooms? For ten years Sam Gosling has been studying how people project (and protect) their inner selves, and how we form impressions of others. One of the world's most ingenious researchers, he dispatches teams of scientific snoops to poke around in people's homes and offices, and discovers that our possessions and daily lives can unexpectedly say more about us, often when the information is cleverly combined, than our most intimate conversations. Once you know what to look for, you can see how reliable a new boyfriend is by peeking into his medicine cabinet or whether an employee is committed to her job by analyzing her desk. The 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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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Edition: Main
Publisher: Profile Books
Published: 28 Jun 2008

ISBN 10: 1846680182
ISBN 13: 9781846680182
Book Overview: For readers of Blink and Freakonomics, a fascinating book about what our everyday actions and possessions reveal about our personalities, whether we know it or not...

Media Reviews
Charming and well written...readable and practical guide to understanding the people around you. -- Richard Wiseman * New Scientist *
Gosling's conclusions are supported by rigorous academic research, but his engaging book is aimed at a popular audience...Snoop's conceit makes for an entertaining tour of how people project their inner selves outward into the world. This may seem like just common sense, but it's not. * The Washington Post *
A wry primer in how to decode other people's private lives through their worldly goods. * Tatler *
Gosling's work, reminiscent of Martha Stout's The Sociopath Next Door in its vivid, true-to-life portraits of people and places, is a unique blend of scholarly research and accessible vignettes. Expect future books from this young scholar, whose storytelling skills prove he's capable of bridging the gap between ivory-tower dwellers and street denizens. * Library Journal, starred review *
Highly entertaining. * Times High Education *
Snoopology is a science with a right way and wrong way of doing it...I was blithely going about it entirely the wrong way. A fascinating book. -- Lucy Kellaway * Financial Times *
[F]ascinating...I look forward to more of this from Gosling as his subject area develops. -- William Leith * The Spectator *
Snoop is all about decoding the clues in objects... it's fascinating for me because of our shared compulsion and overlapping experience. It's fascinating where he confirms familiar ideas and where he introduces new angles...On he goes, writing far better than American social psychologists usually do (because he's a Brit)... -- Peter York * Management Today *
This guide will change the way you arrange your desk forever. -- Cath Millman * The Big Issue Wales *
Fascinating. -- Emily Dubberley * Scarlet *
Sam Gosling's entertaining SNOOP shows how our personality is exuded by our living spaces and possessions. Very revealing. -- Amanda Gefter * New Scientist, Editor's Picks 2008 *
Author Bio
British-born, Sam Gosling studied at Leeds University and is now an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas in Austin, where he lives. He has been profiled in the New York Times and other magazines and this is his first book.