Smoking makes you cool

You see them lurking in the shadows outside Hartley library dressed like hoodlums. They take up the benches in Jesters, blowing cancer and judgement inducing smoke in to your precious, tar-less lungs.

Well good news nicotine addicts, according to data collected from a YouGov survey, being a smoker is edgy as fuck.

Through a survey of 13,000 people aged between 18 – 34, YouGov discovered that young smokers are more likely to describe themselves as “individualistic” and have an alternative music taste.

Like this bloke

Participants in the survey were asked to describe their personality through a list of 100 positive and 100 negative personality traits. The top personality traits chosen suggest that smokers see themselves as being more wacky, original and individualistic. However, it also showed that smokers are generally more likely to be big headed, insecure and nervous.

If your image of a student smoker was a tattooed hipster who listens to all that music they don’t play in the Oceana cheese room, then you wouldn’t be far from the truth. The report showed that smokers preferred to listen to artists such as The Prodigy, Slipknot and Dr Dre. This was opposed to non-smokers who are more likely to listen to mainstream artists such as Taylor Swift, Tinie Tempah and Coldplay. Looks like you can’t shake off that conformity.

Look how individualistic he is

However, it’s not all good news for smokers, (who would have thought it?) as it is also reported that young smokers are more prone to being late than non smokers. 31 per cent of the people who took the survey and smoke said they were more likely to be slightly late. Whereas only 20 per cent of non-smokers said they were often late.

This divide in personalities between those who smoke and those who don’t may be accountable to the fact that smoking rates in Britain have halved since 1974. Due to the smoking ban, raised taxes on tobacco, and a general change in health trends, only 22 per cent of men and 17 per cent of women in the UK are now reported to smoke.