The Secrets in Your Stuff

July 1, 2008— -- Sam Gosling is a distinguished psychologist who employs an unusual technique to probe personalities. He likes to snoop, and not just in your medicine cabinet. Gosling wants to go through all your stuff -- even sit in your bathtub -- to find out what's going on in your head.

His new book, "Snoop," is based on the theory that sometimes going through a person's belongings can provide insight into personality.

"A snooper does what we all do in looking around people's places," Gosling said. "I think we all do it. 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."

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."

"Nightline" decided to test Gosling at the office of his friend and colleague, John Jost, at New York University. 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.

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 goal, Gosling said, is to "look at the big picture. And look for themes. Because any single item could be misleading. There could be something here that really doesn't reflect what the occupant is like. 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."

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 should be one piece of the puzzle," he said. "It could reflect many different things, you know? There are many different reasons you might have that. So we have to try to narrow down the likely reasons you have that."

Gosling noted that Jost's office is "pretty organized," and said that he can tell a lot from someone's music collection. Jost has a lot of classic rock.