Kind of a really stupid, self-evident “study”.
You would expect that smarter people would be more likely to take the time to switch to other platforms, even if it turns out those platforms aren’t any better. They simply would make choices.
The “less smart” people are likely going to buy a computer, and use what it gives them. This also explains the “smartness” difference between IE6 and IE8 — the less “smart” you are, the more likely you are to just keep using what you have, to not be set up to get automatic updates, and to not need to keep buying new computers that come with newer versions.
If tomorrow every computer started coming standard with Firefox, within 5 years that would be the browser used by the stupidest people.
There probably is some merit to this conclusion but the study results are presented in a dangerous way. They are making a pretty sweeping generalization based on a self-selected group. All computer users were not forced to take the test. I can easily imagine a fair number of smart people whose lives aren't wrapped up in computers who simply don't put the effort into looking for other browsers.
This study is like saying people who speak only one language have a lower IQ than people who speak three langauges; or people who don't know calculus have a lower IQ than people who know it. In a very limited way its true, but you really have to heavily qualify the statement.
Now, with that I'll go back to using my Explorer browser with whatever upgrades Microsoft recommended I take.
Nice logic - I'll bet you're right on this...
Or it could be simply that smarter people are too damned busy working to take an online IQ test?