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.”
Pedro uses Netscape
Well, duh?
The browser that came for free with the PC will always be the browser that the Bottom of Table will use.
IE-6.x is still used by companies who built software once and never planned to revisit the implementation.
They use machines long past their possible expected life-span because some businesses never replace a machine as long as its capable of performing the function for which it was bought.
(I know a company which is still running some departments on IBM Pentium PCs running OS/2 and will do so until the machine physically break [And IBM PCs are built like brick shit houses.])
Look at your boss. (Try not to throw up.)
Is he a tight-fisted moron? (Catty I know 🙂
Is his boss an accountant? (Hardware is a depreciable capital expenditure, software in an expense. You defer non-depreciating expenses for as long as possible. Since you can run the same software across generations of hardware, you can run a system without so much as a recompilation, so you don’t encounter that expense.)
Is the executive bonus structure based on how little money the department was spent that year?
If you answered yes, specially to the last question, then you’re probably running IE-6.x
The fact that a lot of the survey takers arrived at the survey site by clicking on advertisements says a LOT about the IQ level.
Study was funded by Google.
I’d like to see a study on how W won 2 terms in office.
There something not quite right with that chart, Opera users show a increase, Safari users are about the same and IE users drop and what the hell is Camino? Another thing, what’s with these studies comparing IQ with the type of hardware or software you use?
Nothing but browser elitists wanting to say they are better because they use a different browser. Please! I use IE9 and Chrome.
People that say that IE9 users are dumb are the same browser sluts that jump from one browser to another, like those that jumped from Firefox to Chrome.
People say IE9 users are dumb, but other browser users are disloyal.
I’ve been using Opera since ’01; I certainly felt like I was getting smarter all this time. The chart only plots two points, not a curve – too bad.
#4; I use software at work that was written more than a decade ago and runs on an old pentium Compaq. It works just fine, I am intimate with every nook and cranny of the app, it was written in assembly and runs fast straight and true – 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? More points of failure? Additional security vulnerabilities? Increased complexity? Faster hardware running meta-meta-meta code slower? What?
This is such BS. Of course, the less intelligent computer user has no idea there even IS any other “browser”. They don’t even know what a “browser” is.
They just click on the icon that came with the computer to get on the Internet.
SO? The people who are not too bright, (my brother) just use it because it is the one they have, and it works.
I felt as if I had gained IQ points after dumping Opera because of its incompatibility (and other) problems with Web sites I use.
And it’s not a true IQ test unless the time required by the candidate to complete the exam is a factor of the final score.
#6 I’d like to see a survey showing how Barney Frank and Barbara Boxer keep getting re elected. We know BO got elected because he is black, and libs just wanted to show the world how liberal they are. Great job.
You know most people use what they get with a product. You buy a car, most people don’t put a different engine in it. Or change out the radio. They use what they get. Same goes for computers. Most people don’t upgrade them, they don’t seak out a new browser and they don’t switch to a different operating system. I have found in my experience working on computers most people like what they like and don’t care to try something else. My wife likes IE and in fact she hates it when it upgrades to a different version. Because it usually changes the UI and she don’t like that!
I am really surprised at how these browser developers still don’t get that people don’t like drastic changes!
They should do the same IQ test for folks that insist on still using FLASH!
Or, windoz
This is a reflection of Microsoft users in general. As far as I can tell there are only a few Microsoft fans here including one whack job, Home Depot job searching, fence climbing, free service having Hispanic.
I’ll buy there is a “difference” but not THAT much. Course, we need access to the raw data. How many times did Pedro repeat the test trying to raise his score? A bias like that can give unique results.
#13. Can’t say on Barney Frank, but if you consider that the Republicans ran the “woman who ruined Hewlett Packard” up against Boxer, well it’s kind of like a choice between having your finger cut off or the entire hand.
As many above have stated, most people will use the browser included with their computer, and most don’t even know what a browser is. We are far from the days when most computers were purchased by people with some technical knowledge. Try explaining web based email verses actually downloading mail to some of these people sometime!
Oh, and as for old hardware. My dad passed away 2 years ago. My brother and I have been sorting out things on his computer. It’s a Leading Edge 386SX25, complete with Windows 3.1, and a tractor feed dot matrix printer, no modem, and a 5.25″ floppy drive as the A drive. He used it until a week before he died. It came with Microsoft Works. He used that even after I had installed Word and Excel years ago. I could never stand it, but he was used to it and knew how it worked.
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.
Oh, and I too, gave up on Opera due to incompatibility issues with certain sites and functions. Overall, it was very quick and nice to use, but too much bother switching to Firefox just for online banking, for example. So, I’ve been with Firefox for years now.
But, the second thing I do with a new PC (1st is anti-virus) is use IE to download Firefox and Thunderbird. After that, IE only gets used when absolutely necessary.
If you shake your head from side to side really fast, it looks like every red bar has a blue bar.
Agreed, this is Bullshit. And BTW, why is Firefox so got-damned buggy?
I use Safari. I think that’s Indian.
#21 Change to whatever browser you want, and LIKE any browser you want, but if your bank – of all things – won’t run on Opera, you should consider changing banks.
Opera actually will run on practically any site, just right click, “edit site preferences”, and click “mask as IE”. In other words lie. If it still doesn’t work the site is doing something funky that they shouldn’t and you’re better off not visiting. Or, you know, switch browsers.
This is total nonsense.
Do a whois on AptiQuant.com. The domain was registered two weeks ago by a GA Tech student, who coincidentally was the first to post a link to the “study” hosted there on Digg and other sites.
It’s a troll. You’ve been trolled.
#28 Nice catch. Also only registered for one year.
“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.”
And somebody actually PAID to confirm this????
Actually, people on the lower side of the IQ scale don’t even know what a browser is or does.
Want to save the US economy? STOP PAYING FOR IDIOTIC “STUDIES”.
The page on AptiQuant.com labeled “Our Team” is a ripoff of the page for “Our Team” for CentralTest.
http://aptiquant.com/about-us/our-team/
http://centraltest.com/ct_us/team-central-test.php
CentralTest looks to be a company located in France that provides online tests: “Use our personality and aptitude tests to objectively assess applicants and employees.” They have had their domain since 2001 and the owner appears to be the President and founder Patrick Leguide.
There may be another explanation, but it looks to me that the BS METER needs to be deployed on this study as well as the so-called Psychometric consulting firm Aptiquant.
Well, Aptiquant has gone from a college grad startup to pwning the web. Must be Chrome users.
Bogus study. Not one mention of the “cool” factor. Brother Steve would never leave that out.
msb, what is wrong with using product that lasts a long time. OS/2 is used in lots of ATMs as well. It is to IBM’s credit that they built an OS that can run 15 years without breaking. Now they had DirectX before DirectX, called DIVE. If they had made this full screen they would have been able to compete for gamers a bit longer.