Last week you moved into your new home. Now everything’s finally unpacked you’ve invited the neighbours round for some welcome drinks. As you take their coats from them and they walk through to the living room, what do you suppose is the first thing that will catch their eye and, more importantly, what sort of impressions have they started to form about you already? Do they see you as cultured, friendly and adventurous or uptight, vulgar and dull?
Forming impressions of people based on what we see has only recently become a branch of personality psychology, thanks to the work of Dr. Sam Gosling who has spent the decade studying how our environments reflect who we really are.
There are numerous models available to psychologists who evaluate personality; Gosling uses what’s known as Big 5. This is a measure of five universal personality traits -openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism – that we all have in different proportions.
A question of perception
Openness, conscientiousness and extroversion are the easiest to read from people’s things, says Gosling, and impossible to disguise. “Part of what makes you one personality over another is not just how you behave, it’s also how you view the world. After my class I ask my students, “Who here carries stamps in their wallet?” Some do and some don’t but what’s interesting is the people who don’t carry stamps say, “Why would I want to carry spare stamps in my wallet?” Whereas the people who do carry them think that it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “What if I run out? What if I need to post a letter?”
It’s not just the things we have but how we display them that give clues to our personalities. A large picture above your desk of you with, say, a prominent politician is a sign to other people that you have had a brush with power or status. Compare this to the small, possibly sentimental object placed discreetly in a wallet or a drawer, exclusively for the owner’s benefit. Then there’s behavioral residue, the things that show what activity has taken place, an old coffee cup not yet cleared away, an application form half filled out or the contents of a waste paper basket.
“An FBI agent once told me that when he gets to a crime scene the first thing he does is sit down and let everything wash over him,” says Gosling. “I never really understood at the time what he was talking about. But now I know what he was getting at.”
It’s all too easy to be misled by the first thing you see in a room or any unique, out-of-place item and then jump to the wrong conclusions, he warns. “Distinctive items are a real danger; it’s where people often make mistakes. You get drawn to looking at them by their nature - they stick out - but it’s the very fact that they stick out that means you should be very wary about interpreting them, because they are inconsistent with the rest of the pattern.”
Gosling has decoded the dominant personality traits of each of the desks in these pictures, although his observations and tips could be applied to any space, including your own.
Extrovert
Extroverts love people and prefer to be surrounded by them. They are gregarious and like to take charge.
• The first thing you notice is that there are lots of photos of people, which is to be expected since extroverts like people and all of the things on the board represent things about social connections. This is someone who clearly enjoys other people’s company and cares a great deal about them. There are a number of invitations, which also suggests this person is very socially active.
• Many of the objects seem a bit thrown down, as though someone’s just come back from somewhere, and is always dashing around, typically extrovert behavior. This feels more of a storage space, as opposed to a quiet, comfortable little refuge from the world, like the desk on the previous page, which felt more like a sanctuary.
• Although it’s not super tidy, there’s evidence of conscientiousness here too. Look at the to-do list on the chalkboard. This extrovert likes to plan ahead.
• Other indicators of extroversion, which aren’t in the picture, are CDs or playlists of energetic music, or music with a lot of vocals. Extroverts are often fond of excitement-seeking activities too, such as snowboarding or bungee jumping. I wouldn’t have been surprised to have seen a surfboard or skis propped up either.
Conscientious
Highly conscientious people are self-disciplined, organized and prefer to live according to routines and schedules. They like to plan and make lists and have a strong sense of obligation and duty.
• This person is calm and controlled and thinks before they act. It contrasts with the extrovert’s space, which belongs to someone impulsive.
• The desk is highly organized; everything is in the right place. There’s even a place for the Post-it notes to go. Things are aligned, organized, clean and there’s no clutter. I would also expect the bulletin board to have a schedule or a calendar.
• Everything here is arranged so the person can turn up and start working, if you want something, you just have to stick your hand out and it’s there. There’s an angle poise lamp, all the pencils are sharp, and there are plenty of spare ones to hand. And all the stamps are kept in the glass - like the sharpened pencils - which shows that this person is thinking ahead: they’re buying things before they’re needed.
• Part of what makes someone a particular personality is not just how they behave; it’s also how they view the world. Anyone could start working at this desk straightaway, but only a truly conscientious person could keep it this way permanently. Would you remember to buy stationery supplies before they ran out, ensure the pencil sharpener was always empty and everything was colour co-ordinated? I wouldn’t notice if the magazines were out of order, but a highly conscientious person would not be able to sit down to work until they were.
Open
Open people like to challenge convention and have vivid imaginations. Jazz records and travel books should come as no surprise.
• When looking at people’s things, beware of assuming that if they have a particular object they have a particular personality trait, especially since openness is defined by distinctive, unusual things. There’s no textbook that will tell you a particular object equals openness, but when you look at these items together, they will tell you a story.
• There are some jazz records on the right-hand side of the desk. Musical preferences vary according to personality traits but jazz scores highly on openness.
• Open people think, ‘I don’t know what I like, and I like what I don’t know.’ Whether this person is a keen traveller or not, the travel book next to the vase suggests an interest in other cultures. People who have maps tend to score high on openness, so the globe is also an indicator of this.
• Open people often have original things. Just below the globe, there’s a little painting that looks like its original art. The shells on the desk are evidence of collecting. Collectors tend to be high on conscientiousness. The type of thing collected is important, too. Shells signify order, symmetry and control. We are all a mixture of the Big 5 traits so this open person is also conscientious.
• The two film postcards in the mirror are a puzzle. Mainstream film and music indicate low openness. Instead of Silence of the Lambs, I would have expected something art house, but then it depends why it’s there. A love of Jodie Foster, or moth pictures perhaps? The meaning of an object can be modified by the context.
