IE users have lower IQ!

Would you believe that? IE users have lower IQ! The survey was done by AptiQuant, a psychometric consulting company based in Canada. They were collecting information from 101,326 individuals over the age of 16 from US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand. The IQ test survey participants were found online when they found out about the survey either organically or via PPC advertising campaign. The thing was they were not aware about their browser preference when their IQ was being surveyed.

The resulting conclusion from the survey indicated IE users scored a little over 80, Firefox, Chrome and Safari users fared better at 110. And the highest IQ (125) was from Opera users. My friend Ryan is going to gloat about this since he is an Opera fan and he is a top student!

One of the conclusions is that lower IT literacy people often cannot grasp the concept of browsers and various other IT related stuff. Even in daily conversation with them they ask what is a browser when in fact they are already using it. And they usually can’t differentiate between IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc. So in most case, when the surf online they will use whatever default that came installed with their PC.

Whereas, the well versed IT users would move on to try something newer or better or different than the default and finds ways to make better use of their software. And usually these people tend to be smarter. And it seems Opera browser though less well known, requires a steeper learning curve to customize it and make it work the way a user wants to work.

So, it is another few more points up for users of alternate browsers from IE, and of course one more reason why non-IE users are always saying it is better not to use IE and go for the alternatives like Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc!

• read the AptiQuant press release
• download the AptiQuant IQ-Browser 2011 survey report (PDF) [unlinked as file was removed]

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Oh, my gosh! This info turned out to be a hoax!

Internet Explorer story was bogus
3 August 2011 Last updated at 10:50 GMT

A story which suggested that users of Internet Explorer have a lower IQ than people who chose other browsers appears to have been an elaborate hoax.

A number of media organisations, including the BBC, reported on the research, put out by Canadian firm ApTiquant.

It later emerged that the company’s website was only recently set up and staff images were copied from a legitimate business in Paris.

It is unclear who was behind the stunt.

The story was reported by many high profile organisations including CNN, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and Forbes.

Questions about the authenticity of the story were raised by readers of the BBC website who established that the company which put out the research - ApTiquant - appeared to have only set up its website in the past month.

Thumbnail images of the firm’s staff on the website also matched those on the site of French research company Central Test, although many of the names had been changed.

The BBC contacted Central Test who confirmed that they had been made aware of the copy but had no knowledge of ApTiquant or its activities.
Research claims

ApTiquant issued a press release claiming that it had invited 100,000 web users to take IQ tests and matched their results with the type of browser they used.

It also supplied extensive research data.

The results claimed to show that Internet Explorer users were generally of lower intelligence.

The BBC sought alternative views for the original story, including Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University’s Statistical Laboratory, who said: “I believe these figures are implausibly low - and an insult to IE users.”

No-one on ApTiquant’s contact number was available for comment.

Graham Cluley, senior security consultant at Sophos, examined the source material for the BBC after concerns were raised.

“It’s obviously very easy to create a bogus site like this - as all phishers know it’s easy to rip-off someone else’s webpages and pictures,” he said.

Mr Cluley also looked at the pdf file containing the data that many people had downloaded from a variety of sources and said it did not appear to contain malware.