The prevention of the spread of germs just got a lot cooler: New research suggests fist bumps are more hygienic than handshakes.
A study from Aberystwyth (Abb-er-ist-WITH) University in the United Kingdom suggests replacing handshakes with fist bumps could reduce the transmission of germs between people.
Think about it. Handshakes involve wrapping your hand around the hand of an acquaintance — an acquaintance who may have just picked her teeth or used the restroom without washing her hands.
But when people fist bump, they lightly knock their knuckles against their acquaintances’ knuckles. Germs need direct contact to spread, so gestures that make use of less direct contact for shorter periods of time should transfer fewer microbes.
The researchers began thinking about handshakes when the focus on clean offices intensified. Keyboards and phones got special attention — but what about how germs might get transferred from person to person?
To test their germ theory, researchers dipped their gloved hands into an E. coli broth. They then shook hands, high fived and fist bumped.
The gloves of the researchers who shook hands showed the gesture transferred the most E. coli. Giving a high-five instead of a handshake reduced the amount of E. coli transferred by 50 percent, but the fist bump reduced the transference by 90 percent.
The researchers also found that the heartier the handshake, the more germs spread.
Because their method can’t address how handshakes transmit flu and other diseases, researchers hope future research addresses how these kinds of gestures transfer other viruses. The researchers said people could reduce the spread of infectious diseases if they just pounded fists instead of shook hands.
Now, the trick will be to avoid those seemingly inevitable moments when one person goes in for the handshake and the other goes for the fist pound.