A recent online research study indicating that Internet Explorer users have lower IQs than other browser users was likely bollox.
In other words, it's no different than any other online research study.
Last week, myriad news outlets – including the BBC, CNN, Forbes, The Telegraph, and, yes, The Register – reported on a survey posted to the web by a research outfit calling itself AptiQuant. The survey purportedly measured the IQs of 101,326 internet users and correlated these IQ scores to each user's browser of choice.
According to AptiQuant, the IQs of Internet Explorer users ranked significantly lower than those of other netizens, but it would appear that AptiQuant doesn't exist and that the survey was a hoax.
The AptiQuant website was set up only in the past few weeks, and the purported photos of its staff were lifted from the website of a French research outfit that had no knowledge of anything called AptiQuant.
deja deja foo [webmasterworld.com...] ( shaddows )..'bout 15 hours ago. :)
tangor
1:23 am on Aug 4, 2011 (gmt 0)
Yeah, but my headline (again) is better and not lost in a previous post!
graeme_p
11:31 am on Aug 4, 2011 (gmt 0)
IE users are dumb, its just not been proven yet.
StoutFiles
12:11 pm on Aug 4, 2011 (gmt 0)
So, made up company makes claims that everyone already assumes to be true?
jecasc
3:49 pm on Aug 4, 2011 (gmt 0)
I think they should have made the hoax with income instead of IQ. I would have preferred to feel richer to feeling more intelligent for the few days the joke lasted.
Wait. Anyone else having a feeling of "Déjà vu"?...
lucy24
7:47 pm on Aug 4, 2011 (gmt 0)
I would have preferred to feel richer to feeling more intelligent
But people know how rich they are. They don't know how intelligent they are. (Or, ahem, they know incorrectly.) A money-related finding would have made me feel poorer, because it means that everyone else using Browser X has to be richer than me in order to bring up the average.
londrum
8:38 pm on Aug 4, 2011 (gmt 0)
well i dont care if it was a hoax. i am an IE user and i am dumb. im not having anyone tell me that im not dumb when i know i am.
graeme_p
2:15 am on Aug 5, 2011 (gmt 0)
A money related finding would not have got the same attention from the press. It was an excellent hoax because it outraged people, but was convincing enough to be credible.
Now, someone tell me about journalists checking facts gain. This is what happens if you believe what is in the media.
Leosghost
2:26 am on Aug 5, 2011 (gmt 0)
It isn't because Goldilocks is a fairy tale, that one can say bears don't defecate in arboreal environments.
