What Drives Us To Snoop?

According to a recent study 40% of people will do this when they visit someone else’s house. What is it you ask? Snoop through the medicine cabinet. Weirds me out too. It made me question what is in mine, and now what is in yours! Here are just a few reasons of just why one may look. For more click here.

• “Broad descriptors—traits—represent our first read on someone. Are they curious and friendly or do they appear anxious and moody? There are five classes of traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) represented by some 4500 words in the English language. Traits represent a snap judgement on someone and may help determine if we want to get to know that person better. If you can identify someone’s surface traits, you’re an acquaintance.
• Personal concerns are contextual details, such as roles, goals, skills, and values, that you would never know in passing.  We learn about personal concerns by asking strategic questions, like “Who’s your favorite band?” or “Where did you stay while you were in Mexico?” or “What preschool did you decide on?” They’re simple questions that we work into our conversations as we look for common ground. These questions vary depending on the audience. For example, one study asked 60 college-ages men and women were asked to task about anything they thought would help them get to know one another. Researchers recorded and coded every word they spoke for six weeks and seven themes emerged. Topics around books, clothing, movies, music, television, football, and sports were repeated over and over, and interestingly, as people moved forward in their “relationships,” music continued to represent common ground. It was a salient topic to this group, but others may have different grounds for connecting.
• Identity is the foundation of personality; it ties together traits and personal concerns and experiences together in a singular narrative. Identity is the story someone tells about themselves, and the one that we look to repeat when asked about that person.” – scientificamerican.com