A new and alternative way of greeting and showing respect has been found to be more hygienic than shaking hands. Sports players do it after a teammate scores. Rock stars and actors do it onstage at awards ceremonies. U.S. President Barack Obama does it. It's fist bumping – like a high five, except the hand is closed into a ball and the other person's fist is nudged, knuckles to knuckles. Researchers in Wales have discovered that this twenty-first-century greeting spreads one-twentieth of the germs than a handshake does and around one-tenth of the germs in a high five.

The fist bump started with American motorcycle gangs in the 1940s. It was easier and safer to fist bump than to shake hands when two riders were side by side. It got global exposure in 2008 when President Obama and his wife Michelle fist bumped during a televised presidential campaign speech. There is less skin contact during a fist bump so there is less chance of spreading germs. A researcher said: "People rarely think about the health implications of shaking hands, but…there is a genuine potential to reduce the spread of infectious diseases.