Internet Explorer users have below-average IQ, survey says
Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft corporate vice president of Internet Explorer, announces the launch of the latest version of the browser, Internet Explorer 9, at SXSW March 14, 2011 in Austin, Texas.
(Note: This story has been revealed as a hoax. GlobalPost reports).
Your choice of web browser can reveal your IQ, at least according to a Canadian “psychometric consulting" firm that in a new survey has attempted to correlate internet browsing habits with intelligence — and singles out Internet Explorer users as having low IQ.
A Vancouver-based company called AptiQuant gave free online IQ tests to 100,000 people, and then plotted their scores against the web browser they used to take the test, PC World reports.
The survey found that IE users scored lower than average on the IQ test. In comparison, Chrome, Firefox and Safari users scored slightly above average, while Camino, Opera and Internet Explorer with Chrome Frame users were scored as having significantly higher IQs.
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In terms of numbers, IE users scored an average IQ in the low eighties. Chrome, Firefox and Safari users rated over 100, while Opera and Camino users had an "exceptionally higher" average IQ score of over 120.
"The study showed a substantial relationship between an individual's cognitive ability and their choice of web browser," AptiQuant said.
"From the test results, it is a clear indication that individuals on the lower side of the IQ scale tend to resist a change/upgrade of their browsers."
Within the group of IE users, version 6 users scored the lowest, while users of version 8 performed better on the IQ test.
AptiQuant said that using IE doesn't mean you have low intelligence, but rather “that if you have a low IQ then there are high chances that you use Internet Explorer," AptiQuant CEO Leonard Howard told the BBC.
The study has sparked anger from IE supporters, some of whom have threatened AptiQuant with legal action, the BBC reports.
But Jared Newman of PC World said the results should not be taken too seriously. "They are, after all, comprised only of people who feel compelled to take IQ tests," he wrote.
"But if you ever want to argue that Internet Explorer 6 users are too stupid to upgrade, at least now you've got some empirical evidence."