Gettin' Snoop-y: How Your Things Reveal Your Personality

January 30, 2009

Think a medicine cabinet is just a medicine cabinet? Think again. Social psychologist Sam Gosling believes that our belongings can provide insight into our personalities. His book, Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You explores the ways we subconsciously tell the world about ourselves through our things. Recently, Gosling took a look at some reader-submitted photographs, and what he says might surprise you. Read on to see his take on them (and see if you can guess which stuff belongs to me).

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by POPSUGAR Beauty 23

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by POPSUGAR Beauty 23

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Snoop Sam Gosling

23 Comments

bean747 4 years 13 weeks

yeah, organization is not my strong point.

Jess8902 4 years 15 weeks

I have so much stuff in drawers I have to purge once a month.. i'm such a junkie. My sis in law always likes it when it's purging time.. I think she's stopped buying beauty products completely, I'm her provider. lol

macchiatolove 4 years 15 weeks

very interesting. I suppose it says something about me that the first and only thing I could concentrate on while looking at these, was how many people store perfume incorrectly. Perfume should be stored in their boxes, out of direct light, otherwise they deteriorate. (gosh, I'm so old that i feel like I have to even mention this, I'm such a mum, LOL)

macchiatolove 4 years 15 weeks

very interesting. I suppose it says something about me that the first and only thing I could concentrate on while looking at these, was how many people store perfume incorrectly.Perfume should be stored in their boxes, out of direct light, otherwise they deteriorate.(gosh, I'm so old that i feel like I have to even mention this, I'm such a mum, LOL)

kristinb 4 years 16 weeks

To clarify the comment above, Sam may view 'Snoopie #1' as disorganized, but if we asked 5 readers to describe this 'Snoopie's' personality they would also probably rate them as highly disorganized. There is a great deal of research (Sam's research esp.) that shows that complete strangers can make inferences about someone's personality (e.g., that they're disorganized) from very little information (perhaps just a photo like those shown above). This is what enables him to identify personality traits from looking at the photos but also what would enable any casual reader to do the same (imho).

kristinb 4 years 16 weeks

Reposting this comment because I don't see it above. I think the main idea is not that Sam Gosling actually has the power to predict or guess people's personalities from looking at their stuff. Rather, anyone has this ability to guess others' personality from looking at their stuff. Moreover, we probably would all agree on our guess (and therefore with Sam). So really we could use some sort of crowdsourcing and this might be even more interesting- if all the readers looked at this stuff and guessed the personality of others.

kristinb 4 years 16 weeks

This is hilarious that Sam Gosling looked at reader photos. I'm really weirded out. Anyway, I do really similar research to this in my dissertation and now my work. He does lots of research on websites and Facebook as well. Read: http://www.icwsm.org/papers/3--Gosling-Gaddis-Vazire.pdf If you just want to read a quick academic paper about how people form impressions using Facebook profiles. He also does a lot of work on personality in general.

kristinb 4 years 16 weeks

cleegiants 4 years 16 weeks

oooh..one of those is mine. i've been waiting for this. thanks bella! his analysis is fairly accurate i've got to say. i'm a little more complicated, but that is a part of me.

the afterlife 4 years 16 weeks

I can't figure out what I am. My drawers hate me, that I can vouch for, yes.

the afterlife 4 years 16 weeks

I can't figure out what I am.My drawers hate me, that I can vouch for, yes.

danixk 4 years 16 weeks

I'm numero 6. But the 'description' isn't like me. Change is good in my book.

danixk 4 years 16 weeks

I'm numero 6. But the 'description' isn't like me. Change is good in my book.

JaimeLeah526 4 years 16 weeks

I'm a #3 definitely. I really should add wall/wrapping paper to the inside of the drawers to dress them up a little bit.

chiquita29 4 years 16 weeks

This was very interesting. I wonder what he'd say about me. I hope he wouldn't say I was a control freak because my makeups pretty well organized LOL.

leeluvfashion 4 years 16 weeks

Fun! I try to be organized and have items in sections/rows according to use (washes, moisturizers, then onto hair care, etc..) Makeup is partially sorted in a pink bag (cheery.) Photo's 2, 3 and 6 bring me the most interest; I always become curious as to what products are on the shelf/in the drawer,lol.

leeluvfashion 4 years 16 weeks

omilawd 4 years 16 weeks

"Organization?" What is that? No comprende.

margokhal 4 years 16 weeks

I don't really have that many beauty products...so they're just kind of everywhere [I found mascara in my "mad money" jar! haha]. I wonder what he'd have to say about that... ALSO, I really hope I get to work with him in grad school - because this stuff [and his other research] is pretty darn interesting! just had to throw that out there :D

margokhal 4 years 16 weeks

I don't really have that many beauty products...so they're just kind of everywhere [I found mascara in my "mad money" jar! haha]. I wonder what he'd have to say about that...ALSO, I really hope I get to work with him in grad school - because this stuff [and his other research] is pretty darn interesting! just had to throw that out there :D