A survey has revealed you should be even more disappointed in humankind than you first anticipated.

Now.

We all believe in some silly things when we’re young. Take Santa, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy – I hate to break it to you if you didn’t already know a Tinkerbell-like being doesn’t actually creep under your pillow and pay you for going through something as minor as losing a tooth. However, this really takes the biscuit.

A survey has shown a shocking amount of people in the US believe chocolate milk comes from – wait for it – brown cows.

I wish I was joking, but I’m not. It’s truly the sort of news which makes you weep and nearly give up on humanity altogether.

The Innovation Center of US Dairy alongside Edelman Intelligence conducted a survey to see if American adults – yes, adults – know where chocolate milk comes from.

According to Undeniably Dairy’s ‘Dairy Good’ website campaign: ”

“The purpose of the survey was to gauge some interesting and fun facts about consumers’ perceptions of dairy, not a scientific or academic study intended to be published.

“While the study wasn’t intended for public consumption, it is statistically valid. The study polled 1,000 American adults online between 5 May and 9 May, 2017. Responses came from all 50 states, and the regional response breakdown was fairly even.”

Depressingly, seven percent of the country – which may sound minor, but actually totals a whopping 16.4 million people – believe chocolate milk isn’t made by cocoa, sugar and milk, but comes straight out of the udder of a brown cow.

To put that even more into perspective, 16.4 million people is around the equivalent of the population of Cambodia, Chad or Senegal.