By carrying out Hartree-Fock full, symmetry unconstrained geometry optimizations on the 25 symmetrically unique staggered conformers, using the 4-31+G * basis set it was found that, on the Hartree-Fock level, gTTg and gTTg' are the lowest energy rotamers in 1,3-propanedithiol. We also found a number of clear conformational trends. Intramolecular hydrogen bonding was found to be of minor importance. The introduction of electron correlation yields a stabilization of the rotamers with one or two gauche SCCC arrangements relative to those with less gauche SCCC arrangements. Consistent with this, we find that on the MP2 level the most stable conformers are gGGg' and gGGg.