Here's another "silly season" story. According to the "psychometric consultancy" outfit AptiQuant, users of Internet Explorer are as thick as two short planks. By Martyn Warwick.
AptiQuant sent online IQ tests to more than 100,000 people and, based on the responses it got, came to the conclusion that users of the Internet Explorer browser are likely to have a lower than average IQ. Although, in my world, the same could be said of anyone spending valuable drinking time completing inane online questionnaires.
The idea was that subjects would stumble across the survey by accident whilst footling about on the web. AptiQuant then noted the browser each respondent used to take the test. According to the company, Internet Explorer users performed the least well in the tests. Ergo they are cretins. Simples!
In fact, on the moron scale, the remaining devotees of Internet Explorer 6 are dimmer than those who have hitched their stars to Internet Explorer 8. According to the test IE6 users have IQs of about 80, making them as bright as your average marmot. Meanwhile, IE 8 users are on a par with a maze-bright moose. Middling numbskulls use Firefox, Chrome and Safari while brainboxes (with IQs of 120 plus) use Camino and Opera. And if you believe that...
According to AptiQuant, "The study showed a substantial relationship between an individual's cognitive ability and their choice of web browser.
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."
Oh, really? What about the fact that some browsers are considerably more popular than others and therefore have more users than others? Isn't it also a fact that some of those who spend time completing online IQ tests are saddos with low self-esteem who need to get out more?
Leonard Howard the CEO of AptiQuant (and before you ask, no I don't know his IQ) claims he has had a welter of abusive emails since the results of the test were published and has been threatened with court action. I wonder why?
He said, “I just want to make it clear that the report released by my company did not suggest that if you use IE that means you have a low IQ, but what it really says is that if you have a low IQ then there are high chances that you use Internet Explorer. A win in a court [case] would only give a stamp of approval and more credibility to our report.” Pick the bones out of that!
On its website AptiQuant say it "provides tools to corporates to help them measure the mental ability of existing or potential employees."
By the way, AptiQuant is a Canadian company. Does this perhaps help confirm prejudices widely held amongst some people south of the 49th parallel?
please sign in to rate this article
47911
