
For the last 10 years, psychologist Sam Gosling has been studying how people project (and protect) their inner selves. 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 to others, and interpret the world around us.
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.
What he has discovered is astonishing: when it comes to the most essential components of our personalities, the things we own and the way we arrange them often say more about us than even our most intimate conversations.
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©2008 Sam Gosling; (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America
In what Sam Gosling calls his field guide to ""snoopology,"" the psychologist offers a surefire way of seeing through the faìades that people erect to hide their true selves. Gosling maintains that people's personalities are evident in their ""stuff"" and that by analyzing their ""behavioral residue""--their bedrooms, their CD collections, even their garbage--it's possible to separate the inner person from his or her outward projection. Narrator David Drummond makes listening both informative and entertaining. His dry humor and lighthearted approach are in perfect sync with Gosling's well-supported academic research, here geared toward a general audience. Filled with practical insights (anxious people wear out their brakes more quickly) and generalized stereotypes (a firm handshake means a more extroverted person), the whole listening experience, as delivered by Drummond, is fun. © AudioFile 2008
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