Internet Explorer users "are kind of stupid," says study

(CBS) - As you read this post, which browser are you using? If you're on Internet Explorer, you might want to stop reading because we're about to hurt your feelings.

According to AptiQuant, a "psychometric consulting" firm that provides hiring exams for businesses, Internet Explorer users are kind of stupid.

AptiQuant called their post, "Is Internet Explorer For The Dumb? A New Study Suggests Exactly That." Ouch!

The Canada-based company gave online IQ tests to more than 100,000 people. "Visitors arrived either through organic searches or through advertisements on other sites, and AptiQuant made a note of which browser each test taker was using," reports PC World.

According to the study, Internet Explorer 6 users were the dumbest with Internet Explorer 8 users performing slightly better. Firefox, Chrome and Safari were in the middle, while Internet Explorer with Chrome Frame and Camino were at the top as having better IQs than the rest.

"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," explains AptiQuant.

Since Internet Explorer is pre-installed in Windows, some folks who are not tech savvy (smart?) use it by default. And since they're lacking the tech savvy-ness (smarts?) to download a different (better?) browser, one could conclude they're not as sharp. Thoughts?

"Microsoft created a conspiracy with Internet Explorer's shell integration with Windows Explorer, and making its removal complicated, if not impossible," says AptiQuant.

So dare we ask, which web browser are you using?

[amerilatino]

This is a sample of one of the factors that are contributing to the degrading of American industry. The relaxation/neglect of labor and management oversight by federal, state and county governments have allowed a sea of snake-oil merchants with dubious credentials and very little obligation of accountability to infest the U.S. marketplace. This has not only created unfair, virulent competition for bona-fide enterprises, it boogers up the money supply when these fly-by-night businesses default on their financial obligations (as they often do) and miraculously disappear. Like icebergs, they hold the potential to do much more damage than is evident at first glance. It's time to tighten up U.S. corporate charter and trade regulations with respect to the way businesses portray themselves, their products and services in the American marketplace.

[Pumellhorne]

I'm a little rusty, but I have a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and I have many concerns with this study.

This is from their own website:
"A Vancouver based Psychometric Consulting company, AptiQuant, has released a report on a trial it conducted to measure the effects of cognitive ability on the choice of web browser."

They're speaking as if reporting someone else's findings and that seems quite odd.

They claim they're studying the variable of cognitive ability against the variable of choice, but there is no establishment that the web browsers are chosen by participants, some of whom will potentially be accessing the test from work. Without establishing the factor of choice the results are confounded and unusable.

Next, I can't find any numbers in the pdf report to indicate how many users there were per web browser. For this type of study that info is essential.
Let's say, for sake of argument, out of 101,326 participants 101,306 use IE6-8 and the remaining 20 use IE9 or other web browsers. Now let's say that just by chance half of the 20 have well above average IQs. That kind of slant is going to skew the data completely. The 'population' of the study (relating to the other web browsers) is too small and the data 'not significant'. If the same thing happened at the other end, a handful of IE6 users with a few very low IQs mixed in, we have another set of skewed data and a 'type 1 error'
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_I_and_type_II_errors ). Averages are meaningless without the number of users.

There's no indication in the report if the results were 'significant' - a term which indicates whether the results match the hypothesis, shown by a 'P-value'. Where's the P-value for this study? There are misleading uses of the word 'significant' in the Results section, e.g. "ranked significantly lower", but this is not how genuine experiments use the word and it creates (presumably on purpose) confusion about the results by giving the impression they're statistically significant when the author in fact means 'pronounced'.

The Results section discusses the findings. That tips me off that this study either isn't real or wasn't done properly. It's not for the Results section to convey the author's opinion on the findings, that goes in the Discussion/Conclusion section(s). Students have it drummed into them not to talk about what they find until the correct part of the report. The Results section should be statements of bald facts and doing otherwise is either an amateurish mistake or deliberately misleading.

[rf35]

I'm Mensa-qualified and I use Internet Explorer. Let's get the cause and effect nailed down before we go publishing this kind of clap-trap, shall we Ms. Usigan? Your credibility just took a hit.

[verfasser]

Junk social science at its worst. There are so many things wrong with AptiQuant's conclusion, I don't even know where to begin. I received a BA in psychology (magna *** laude) so I guess that makes me smart and I don't even know what browser I'm currently using. I simply don't care. As others have said, internet saavy does not equal "smart". Personally speaking, I feel like my IQ drops sharply when I squander too much of my time on the internet.

[commenter777]

duh? Stupid is as stupid does. There are people that are rocket scientists, like me, that use IE because there are other products that we use that run just with IE. So don't clump everyone into one heap, k?

[longtree-2009]

aren't most people using IE 9 these days? don't know anyone using IE 6 or 8.

[rf35]

I'm using IE7 at work but that's because we don't get to choose our browser. I'm running 9 on 2 of my home systems. Once I finish moving house and add other 4 computers to the network, I'm going to get them all on Win 7 and the latest version of IE. Firefox seems equal in speed to IE, but then the broadband here isn't exactly blazing. Chrome doesn't do anything for me and Safari just blows chunks.

[mil2772]

I went back to the Aptiquant.com page and the "About Us" link. The names have changed (except the founder), but the profiles remained the same.

[mil2772]

The company Aptiquant stole the "Our Team" page from CentralTest "Our Team" page. Also, the domain for Aptiquant.com was newly registered just 2 weeks ago. Chances are this is a bogus company and a bogus study.

[14SmokinSkull]

Bingo! Looks like CBS got fooled. A lil more research into the sites they get their news from could help them from pointless articles such as this.

[Scimajor]

IQ tests are a very poor indication of intelligence. Any test where it is possible to get better at the test can't possibly be a good indicator of intelligence. Also, I've found that people frequently don't understand the difference between intelligence and knowledge.

Using myself as an example, I can say without a doubt that my IQ test scores, have improved with my increased knowledge base.

Lastly, it's simply not possible to quantify intelligence since it's not even possible to accurately define intelligence.

[displeased2]

You're such a buzz-killer. I thought this article proved my intelligence, but now, after listening to you, I feel dumber than a rock.

[kenhamlett]

Where did Opera end up on the list?
We really need to know this stuff.