This explains a lot. And yet, as with all statistics, it doesn’t.
If you use Internet Explorer, your IQ might be below average–at least, according to one study.
AptiQuant, a “psychometric consulting” firm that provides hiring exams for businesses, 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.
On average, Internet Explorer users fared the worst, with IE6 users at the bottom of the pile and IE8 users performing slightly better. Firefox, Chrome and Safari fell in the middle with little difference between them. IE with Chrome Frame and Camino landed on top, along with Opera, whose users scored the highest (on average).
“The study showed a substantial relationship between an individual’s cognitive ability and their choice of web browser,” AptiQuant concluded. “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.”
I’ve gone back to the Aptiquant link I posted above and some of the names have changed, but the photos and titles remain the same. For instance, when I first visited the site Jack Smith was the “Sales and Customer Service” person, now it is Rajgopal Brahmachari.
I found CentralTest by goggling Mariya Jilinskaya from the Aptiquant page. Now the name for that profile is Junie Grawskof.
In # 9 Gazbo said: why ever would I want to “upgrade”? If my task doesn’t change (it does, but predictably – new items get added) what is the advantage?
Maybe for security, speed, added functionality? (Tighter coding is not a selling point but it is a hallmark of coding done on the projects I participated in or managed. [new Items get added may be screwing up a carefully crafted piece of code and turning it into a growing kludge ball. Adding functionality is how a kludge ball grows and grows until there’s more kludge than code.])
Its really difficult to create a system which doesn’t change since the very introduction of the system changes the environment for which the system was introduced.
In # 34 MikeN said: what is wrong with using product that lasts a long time.
Nothing at all, if the core is healthy.
This is Microsoft we’re talking about.
They’re a whore outfit run by a sleeze-bag salesman and a shit-load of accountants.
The R&D people are usually forbidden from speaking to the sales people because the sales people would start to ask questions. (At IBM in Bethesda MD, the building had/has a huge multi-story glass partition keeping the R&D folks from ever associating with the sales people. [How else can you sell OS 360 for IBM 370s in 1983? Its all gravy man, but the R&D folks stopped using that shit a decade ago.])
Microsoft started the whole race to the bottom and now all of their hardware partners are to broke to buy an innovative brain cell.
#36 Thanks for a thoughtful response. “Added items” really just meant more items in the db, the software isn’t doing anything new. We’re just talking to a server that runs the prog, the security is in the vpn, and it does the job quick and clean. As for functionality, the last time they “upgraded”, it was a two day clusterdiddle followed by a week of make-up, followed by a month of clean up. Pass.
I’m not a luddite by any means and I love some of the new-new stuff (I did say I use Opera and I’m on 11-point-cutting edge) but sometimes good is good and change is pointless.
I have tools that granddad used that work well. And a new chainsaw.
#25 DU tells me you use WebTV. This is very consistent with sheeple.
Your browser appears faster on HDMI because your driving a lower resolution display when you plug in your “19 TV and see porn in 8 bit color.
Depends on how you define IQ
Here you’ve got a guy who gets on the web and does his own things.
He doesn’t give a rat ass what browser it is, he just want to get things done, turn off the PC, go out and play with this kids.
– Let’s call this guy, Low IQ guy –
Then you’ve got a guy who’s installing the latest and greatest browser, constantly tweaking it to safeguard who-knows-what and checking every OS patch before installing it to make sure that they don’t do any damage to the machine.
Then he plays games, watch TV (online) and when the day’s over he goes to sleep.
– Let’s call this guy, High IQ guy –
Now, who’s the smartest of the two?
The one who use the computger for the sake of using the computer, or the one who use the computer just to get things done?
Hmmmm.
#40–Peepeedoodoo==your own private musings. Of no relevance to this thread.
I wonder if you can tell, before or after.
Tangential thinking: touches the subject but has nothing to do with it.
Amusing.
# 12-
I read somewhere Opera follows standards more closely than other browsers, so possibly it “malfunctions” when it encounters non-standard code? I’m an Opera lover too. I downloaded and installed it years ago and loved the (then)blue-and-white theme.
Is this a joke ?
This study make no sense at all. Are we all presuming that at some point in time one should change their web browser ? And by doing that, the more intelligent people will go for the opera browser and the less intelligent will not find one or one that is not good enough ? for who ?
Believe me this is bullshit, looks like advertisement for all non microsoft browser.
Di you know that 1/2 of all people are below average?
#20, spsffan – my hero is a guy on eBay (user name socaleer) living on the beach in Southern California selling old computers – he’d probably get $300 or more for your Dad’s unit.
AC
Seems pretty obviously true. Why wouldn’t you expect the IE users to be the least intelligent group? It’s a given that that population would include all users who lack the cognitive skills to be able to switch browsers (assuming of course that they even bright enough to know that they can switch browsers) so IE group would be handicapped from the start due to the inclusion of the bottom feeder contingent.
The fact that the overall intelligence of the group comes out lower says nothing about the intelligence of individual IE users. No need for anyone to get their panties in a bunch. Nothing to see here.
#41 Sorry I was not up to your relevance’s expectation.
What *I* see into this chart is that computers have gotten easier that almost anyone today can use a PC.
Those “low IQ” guys probably have lives beyond their computer-usage-time and they don’t give a damn of what flavor of browser they are using.
Sort of like a car, they see it as mean to get to their destination, and they don’t care about who designed the engine.
Are those dumber? dunno, my point is, if you use a computer just for the sake of using a computer, you may have a higher IQ, but you essentially dumb.
Next time I’ll try to meet your relevance’s expectation, and comment only on the browser itself.
#45. Thanks for the tip. I’m near the beach in So Cal. I think I’ll look him up if my step mother hasn’t trashed the hardware yet.
Oh, and as for Opera and my bank, it was Bank of America, and it was at least 5 years ago now that you mention it.
My guess — people who accept the “default” of anything are generally lower IQ.
This same study could be done on other “default” options in our lives. It’s an old example — but the people who never fixed the flashing 12:00 on their VCRs are probably lower IQ. Those who dug out the manual and figure-out how to change it, are probably higher IQ.
So, people who use IE because it came pre-installed are probably lower IQ. It has nothing to do with the program itself.
>> # 20 spsffan said, on August 1st, 2011 at 9:43 am
>> Heck, my company is only now wrestling with the need to replace some PCs and having to get the new versions of Word and Excel, without the menu bar, etc. Nobody likes them.
I HATE the new MS Office menus. It’s one of the main reasons I use Open Office unless I’m forced otherwise.
For several years I tried to convince my bosses to switch to Open Office for the whole company. But, their low IQs prevented them from going with other than the default. 😉
I use Chrome to surf and work while waiting for Firefox to install all of its updates.
#38 – Do they make Mexican porn?
Actually Pe we were referring to you having taken juicy Lucy’s position in the borro show.
I’m with Cap’n Kangaroo on this one. It’s a hoax.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/08/03/1350224/AptiQuant-BrowserIQ-Study-Was-Likely-a-Hoax
LOL… IT WAS A HOAX. It is actually a test of the IQ of news organizations to see who reported it as fact. Brilliant!