Snoop

Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You
by Sam Gosling, Ph.D.

Another one of those "popular psychology" books. The book advertises itself to be an insight into what your bedroom decor and your cube/office organization betray about your true personality to other people. Really it is a collection of descriptions of various research studies, all classifying people's personality traits into 5 categories -- openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN). I cannot say that I learned anything groundbreaking, either about human psychology or myself. People who score high on the openness "Leonardo" factor, i.e. people who "like to play with ideas and . . . have vivid imaginations" will typically have a bedroom "space that is distinctive, with a variety of books, magazines, & music" as well as books on art and poetry and art supplies. Their office will also be distinctive, stylish, and unconventional, with varied books. Taking the quiz at the beginning of the book, I scored high on openness, but not as high as conscientiousness, the "Robocop" factor. People high on this factor tend to be dependable, hardworking, efficient, and good planners. Basically, I am "half [wo]man, half machine, all cop". But I already knew that.

2.5 out of 5