People with supple thumb can easily adapt to people and circumstances; they are quickly at home in whatever society they are thrown in; they settle down easily to new work and new surroundings. Cheiro opines that the supple jointed fellows rarely have the same keenness of moral consciousness that is found in the subjects having stiff joints. This is in consonance with their adaptable and easy going nature. Whether a supple jointed individual actually strays away from the narrow path of righteousness and morality has to be confirmed from the quality of head line, the mounts and the type of hand.

Cheiro states that there are some peculiarities of the palm, notably of the thumb that run through the entire races or nationalities. For example, the supple thumb is the distinctive peculiarity of the Latin races, whereas the stiff joint is the property of the Northern Europe. The supple joint is very rare among the Danes, Norvegians, Germans, English, and Scotch. But this would be found in large numbers among the Irish, French, Spanish, and Italians.

My own experience from reading the hands of various nationalities confirms this. India being a vast country with great diversity has all kinds of thumbs — but a straight headline and a stiff thumb are less common in India, specially as compared to the English and the Germans. USA being a great mixture of races is difficult to belong to one kind; spatulate and square tips there are more common though.

What is true of supple thumbs is also true of supple fingers and supple palms.