Are you still shaking people's hands grandpa? Pfff get with the times, the fistbump is where it's at.
Apparently, it's not just cool anymore, it's also more sanitary, which means that the kids might be on to something here. Researchers from Aberystwyth University's Institute of Biological, Environmental, and Rural Sciences conducted the study and found that the best greeting was the fist bump, at least in terms of spreading germs anyway.
As an experiment, they had two members of the study wear sterile gloves to greet each other, but one of the gloves had been immersed in germs before they shook hands, high-fived or fist bumped. Once the greeting was complete, they then measured how many germs had been transferred to the clean glove.
According to Mashable, the handshake was the worst of the lot, with nearly twice as many bacteria getting transferred, while the fist bump performed the best, with "significantly fewer" bacteria making the trip between hands than with a high five.
David Whitworth, the author of the study to surmise that the fist bump could "substantially reduce the transmission of infectious diseases between individuals", which is all good news of course, whilst also being the first step towards a Demolition Man-style world where no one touches anyone for any reason.
Just make sure that Fox News don't see you doing a fist bump, or, as they prefer to call it, a "terrorist fist jab".
The full study will appear in the American Journal of Infection Control next month, so we can't wait for that issue to come through the door. We just hope the postman didn't touch it with his hands...
Via Mashable
