Snooping can be useful in the office, Gosling said. 'I have two other officemates, and we'll have a glass of wine before we go out, or something like that,' she said.Īnd as for Napier's political leanings, Gosling said that people who are 'broadminded and messy' are usually liberal voters, and he's right when it comes to Napier. 'I tend not to throw things away much.'Īnd she agreed that she cares about her social relationships, hence the empty wine bottle. Gosling evaluated Napier as 'someone who's sort of careless, like scatterbrained.' Some people don't have any evidence of, they really keep those things very strict, so she more integrates her work and her home self.' Pictures of Napier's dogs indicate that 'she's not completely cutting off her personal life from her workplace. Gosling noted that Jost's office is 'pretty organized,' and said that he can tell a lot from someone's music collection.

So we have to try to narrow down the likely reasons you have that.' 'It could reflect many different things, you know? There are many different reasons you might have that. 'It should be one piece of the puzzle,' he said. He won't make a judgment about Jost solely based on the fact that he has a book in his office called 'Why Men Rebel.' It's just there because it's for a teaching demonstration, or a gift for somebody else, or things that aren't really important, or somebody else left it there.' There could be something here that really doesn't reflect what the occupant is like.

Because any single item could be misleading. The goal, Gosling said, is to 'look at the big picture. Gosling went through drawers, examined pictures, checked the status of office supplies and analyzed the position of Jost's desk - all providing clues to Jost's personality. The fellow psychologist didn't mind Gosling's snooping and said that while he tidied up his office beforehand, he didn't do any major organizing. 'Nightline' decided to test Gosling at the office of his friend and colleague, John Jost, at New York University.

The first thing Gosling does is sit down in a space and look around, 'giving the salient items time to fade away a bit, and the broader themes to come out.' It's a very natural thing to do, but really as a snooper you are trying to bring an understanding of the psychology behind it, what drives the placement of objects.' 'A snooper does what we all do in looking around people's places,' Gosling said. His new book, 'Snoop,' is based on the theory that sometimes going through a person's belongings can provide insight into personality. Gosling wants to go through all your stuff - even sit in your bathtub - to find out what's going on in your head. He likes to snoop, and not just in your medicine cabinet. July 1, 2008— - Sam Gosling is a distinguished psychologist who employs an unusual technique to probe personalities.

Snoop by sam gosling