Feet up or ears down? Science says this is the most popular way to eat a chocolate Easter bunny

It’s a debate as old as time…or, as old as candy companies have existed: How ~does~ one properly eat a chocolate Easter bunny? Is it best to chomp from the ears down? Or is it more prudent to eat them from their bunny feet up? Heck, with their cute little bunny faces staring back at you, our inner 5-year-old selves feel cruel eating them at all (*not that it’s stopping us*). But now, thanks to a group of vigilant scientists, we now know which way most of us agree is the ~proper~ way to effectively scarf down a chocolate Easter bunny.

In a study aptly titled “Seasonality of Auricular Amputations in Rabbits” (AKA chocolate bunny ear “amputations” by eating), researchers polled a sample of 28,113 respondents to learn that an estimated 59 percent of candy rabbit-eaters munch from the ears down. In comparison, only 4 percent cared to unwrap their bunny all the way to eat from the feet up.

The most shocking result from this study, however, is the fact that 33 percent of respondents indicated no preference for eating said bunnies from feet up or ears down. Gasp!

While feet-up eating fans may feel disappointed by these results, Easter candy lovers can all be elated by the fact that this holiday narrowly beats out Halloween as the top candy-selling holiday of the year. As a matter of fact, Easter candy sales pulled in a solid $823 million in sales in 2015.

That’s a lot of cream filled eggs and chocolate bunnies, peeps!

While eating Easter bunnies from the ears down is by far the most mainstream way to chow down no them, the only “incorrect” way to eat a chocolate Easter bunny is ~not~ to eat one at all. So go ahead, folks, and #treatyoself.