This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Fist bumps more hygienic than handshakes
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
New study findings suggest that fist bumps are more hygienic than shaking hands.
“People rarely think about the health implications of shaking hands,” Dave Whitworth, PhD, senior lecturer at Aberystwyth University in Wales, said in a press release. “If the general public could be encouraged to fist bump, there is genuine potential to reduce the spread of infectious diseases.”
Whitworth and PhD student Sara Mela evaluated the germs transferred for three different greetings: handshakes, high-fives and fist bumps. The experiments were conducted using rubber gloves that had been immersed in nonpathogenic Escherichia coli.
They found that the most germs were transferred by the handshake, almost double the germs transferred by a high-five. The high-five transferred less than half of the germs transferred by a handshake. A fist bump transferred 90% fewer germs than a handshake. The researchers also found that stronger-grip handshakes increased the amount of bacteria transferred.
To account for the fact that handshakes typically last longer than high-fives and fist bumps, the researchers also evaluated how much bacteria were transferred when they were prolonged for 3 seconds. For high-fives, the transfer of bacteria did not increase significantly, but it increased significantly for fist bumps.
“Adoption of the fist bump as a greeting could substantially reduce the transmission of infectious diseases between individuals,” Whitworth said. “It is unlikely that a no-contact greeting could supplant the handshake; however, for the sake of improving public health, we encourage further adoption of the fist bump as a simple, free and more hygienic alternative to the handshake.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts