Posted on 08/01/2011 12:26:25 PM PDT by Red Badger
In a study that is likely to incite controversy, AptiQuant, a Vancouver, British Columbia based Psychometric Consulting company has released a report that it says shows users of Microsoft Internet Explorer have lower Intelligence Quotients (IQs) than do users of other internet browsers. The company is basing its claims on scores online users received when taking the online Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (IV) test.
The test results were collected from over 100,000 English speaking people from New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Canada and the United States, over a span of four weeks and the score results were compared with the browser used to reach the site offering the test, which were offered free to random users.
In its report, AptiQuant describes how those that took the test found it via search engine queries or ads placed on other sites, meaning that they were looking to take such a test, and those who indicated they were under 16 years of age were sent to another site and were therefore excluded. Once logged in users were asked their age and sex and were then given the IQ test pertinent to their group.
After the four week trial period, test scores were correlated with browsers and AptiQuant says that the results very clearly show (via graph) that people who scored higher on the test were moving away from Internet Explorer to other available browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Camino and Opera. In addition to labeling those who scored lower as less intelligent, the AptiQuant authors also suggest that such visitors were also likely more resistant to change, which they suggest would probably be the case with any other software on the market as well.
One interesting aspect of the report is in how scoring results are interpreted as either higher or lower, rather than as above or below average, a term more often seen in such types of study; the reason being that the former denotes a sense of judgment, while the latter does not. Thus, in their findings, the authors find some of its test-takers to be of higher or lower intelligence, than others, rather than finding some of the test-takers to be of higher or lower intelligence than average, which is a marked distinction.
An interesting twist to the story is that a group of loyal Internet Explorer users are apparently banding together to sue AptiQuant over its report and company CEO Leonard Howard has reportedly said that his company has received a lot of hate mail as well.
FIREFOX RULES!!!..............
Ping!............
Only an idiot would think such a thing.
Breaking . . . the average IQ of a Honda driver is DIFFERENT than the average IQ of toaster users. I’ve even heard that there is a distinct “THIRD CATEGORY” of average IQs amongst people who have between 2 and 3 garden gnomes in their side yard (not front).
I like FF and Opera.
A more fundamental correlation, IMO, is that Windows users have, on average, a lower IQ than Unix, Linux or Mac users.
And most Windows users, especially those of lower IQ, don’t have the smarts to use a different browser on their Windows machine.
Me: I’ve four browsers on my Mac.
Those who are less intelligent are on average more likely to use the default setting.
Well, duhhh.
Personally, I use IE and Chrome. Have no idea what this indicates about my IQ and could not possibly care less.
I'll agree with that part............
Study is bogus, anyone with a high IQ would not stop to take their silly ass survey.
...And scientists are still puzzling over another shocking discovery. People who use welded chains to hold up their mailboxes are twice as intelligent as those who stick those “granny bending over” decorations in their gardens.
If you want to update your windows machine you have to use IE. For everything else, there is Opera. http://www.opera.com/
So, somebody just thought up a new way to increase the average intelligence of the population.
It’s as simple as everybody dropping Internet Explorer, and just installing Firefox or Google or one of the lesser known or least used browsers.
Noe, if you use IE, and then move to FF, and then move back to IE, your intelligence level is fluctuating all over the place, and then, you’ll be confusing the real idiots of the tech world, and that’s the people who conducted the above poll to begin with.
Is Netscape still around? I used to use that years go on an older computer.
Either that or more intelligent users of Unix, Linux, or Macs needed an internet IQ test to make them feel warm and fuzzy while less intelligent users of IE/Windows did not.
Isn’t a browser a shopper who doesn’t buy something?
As an Apple devotee and one who realizes how much I give up when I’m forced to use Windows 7 at work, I still think that article has to be one of the dumbest things I’ve seen.
‘Twould be a much better to provide a survey of congress-critter IQs...which would undoubtedly prove that those folks are subnormal in every category save for perhaps propensity for dishonesty.
I think it died out...................
Red Badger ~ the average IQ of a Honda driver is DIFFERENT than the average IQ of toaster
TOASTER: Would you like some toast?
LISTER: Uh-Uhm.
TOASTER: Some nice hot crisp brown buttered toast?
LISTER: Uh-Uhm.
TOASTER: You don't want any toast then?
LISTER: No.
TOASTER: What about a muffin?
LISTER: Nothing!
TOASTER: You know the last time you had toast? 18 days ago. 11:36, Tuesday the 3rd. Two rounds.
LISTER: Ssshhh!
TOASTER: I mean, what's the point of buying a toaster with artificial intelligence if you don't like toast?
LISTER: I *do* like toast!
TOASTER: I mean, this is my job! This is cruel! Just cruel!
LISTER: Look, I'm busy!
TOASTER: Oh, you're not busy eating toast, are you?
LISTER: I don't want any!!
TOASTER: I mean, the whole purpose of my existence is to serve you with hot, buttered, scrummy toast. If you don't want any, then my existence is meaningless.
LISTER: Good.
TOASTER: I toast, therefore I am.
LISTER: Will you shut up?!
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