Snooping methods outlined

SNOOP: What Your Stuff Says About You. By Sam Gosling, Ph.D. Basic Books. 263 pages. $25.

Finding your new acquaintances a little reticent and hard to get to know? Dr. Sam Gosling, associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin has the solution. Become a snoop.

In 11 chapters with titles such as "Getting to Know You" and "Like a Super Snooper," Gosling leads readers through basic snooping and on to more advanced levels. The "Big 5" dimensions of personality (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism) are the lens through which the book is focused.

Gosling includes a wealth of notes and links for readers who want to explore the topic further. Entirely lacking is any discussion of the ethics of snooping. To Gosling, rummaging through someone's stuff as soon as her back is turned is apparently quite natural.

In his sphere, this may not be a problem. The snoopees are mainly students who have consented to be part of an experiment. But anyone who still retains quaint notions about privacy and acceptable behavior may find such unbridled nosiness more off-putting than informative.