The fist bump, the formerly maligned brotastic greeting now employed by dads and U.S. presidents alike, is as benign as any other greeting: Two acquaintances face one another, make fists, and gently bump their knuckles together. It would be the utter opposite of news, if it weren’t for a new study from England’s Aberystwyth University: Particularly for physicians, the fist bump is significantly more hygienic than any other physical greeting.

“People rarely think about the health implications of shaking hands. If the general public could be encouraged to fist-bump, there is genuine potential to reduce the spread of infectious diseases,” said Dr Dave Whitworth, Senior lecturer at Aberystwyth University.

Using latex gloves slathered in plenty of E. Coli bacteria, researchers exchanged handshakes, high fives and fist bumps to see which had the greatest potential for germ transfer. Shaking hands was by far the worst, with the high five 50 percent better and the winning fist bump and solid 90 percent better.

Since physical contact is necessary for the transfer of most bacteria, so it’s believed the fist bump comes out ahead due to both its speed and reduced surface contact. Increased grip strength during the traditional handshake was also shown to correlate with higher microbe transfer.

Though a somewhat silly study, the findings are no joke.

“If you can cut that by even 10 percent by not shaking a person’s hand,” Dr. Rahul Khare, a professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told the Chicago Tribune “the amount of pain, suffering and financial cost that would save would be immense.”

Sadly, the chest bump was not tested at all.

The study, titled “The fist bump: A more hygienic alternative to the handshake,” will be published in the American Journal of Infection Control.