1950s Cigarette Psychology: 9 Ways of Holding Your Cigarette and Their Meaning | Hacker News Reader

1950s Cigarette Psychology: 9 Ways of Holding Your Cigarette and Their Meaning

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21 pointsBrajeshwar7 comments

Amazing projection/assumption in these "character types". I suppose that era was also post-freud-yet-pro-Myers-Briggs (and IQ tests) so I shouldn't be surprised.

I never liked smoking (yuck) but liked smoking culture: a kind of fraternal relationship (bumming a smoke), the way people used their cigarettes to punctuate conversations, and even communicate through their choice of brand (yet another social language obscure to me).

The "bored with her date" is great. People back then seem to have had a lot of personality. Or maybe its just the sheer amount of people smoking back then.

I love that tidbit on personality. It's true. The personalities were stronger. I'm not from the generation but have made similar observation from it. Peoples public life and reputation back then was more guarded and integrated more closely in private life as well through pristine optics and bubbling character. There was far fewer media influences and even fewer acceptable divergences from ones regional status quo. The secret lives were burried deep with shadows simply oppressed from fear as the oppression and consequences of dissent was high. It built strong wills and personality through high standards and expectations of character to achieve the standard path to success. You walked out the door with this great personality as that's all you had to have a chance in yesterworld. Today the variety of personalities is far greater but the conviction in these dispersed personalities is more flexible as we are all exposed to a wider variety of influences and generally more tolerant of dissent.

“This person is generally unreliable, weak, hard to live with, and inclined to excessive lying.” and “A hail fellow, well-met character who enjoys high living. Sort of the Texas millionaire type.”

But at least these guys would be more likely to survive in an environment where snipers are active. That was a common way of holding cigarettes by people who had been soldiers, hiding the glow of the cigarette inside your palm.

Back when psychologists didn't even bother to make up results which looked statistically significant.

can't imagine people doing B or G style

the rest are plausible / i have seen in the wild

I see B when people want to pause for a bit - the vertical orientation will slow the progress of the cherry, and reduce the stink accumulating on your hand if you're just gonna sit for a while.

G is the opposite - the cherry is hidden. Used to light and smoke in high wind, and to hide it from your spouse or from snipers.

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