AptiQuant Study Shows IE Users have Lower IQs
According to a recent study released by AptiQuant - a human resources consulting company specialising in psychological testing to judge the suitability of an applicant for a job - people who use Internet Explorer (IE) have a lower IQ than those who use other browsers, like Opera, Chrome and Firefox. Following the release of the study, the company says it was flooded with hate mail from people who use the internet browser.
AptiQuant put its study together in an attention-grabbing, free IQ test and then compared the results from over 100,000 self-selected volunteers, grouping the server records of the browsers that were used to take the test. The results suggest that more intelligent people have moved away from using IE over the last 5 years. This was found after a comparison with another, unpublished study showing that significantly more people were using the browser in 2006.
In a press release, AptiQuant said that IE has traditionally been thought of as a pain in the neck for web developers. IT companies will admit the fact that millions of hours are wasted every year to make perfectly functional sites work with the browser, which lacks compatibility with web standards. Web developers are haunted by the millions of people who continue to use older versions of the software, it added.
In a second release, chief executive Leonard Howard said that he wants to make it clear that the release didn’t suggest that people who use IE have a low IQ. What they were really saying is that, people who have a low IQ are more likely to use IE.
Update: It’s now reported - after major media outlets like CNN, BBC, Daily Mail, Telegraph, etc. - that this was all a hoax. Even the company and its website are a sham. Images on the website are said to have been lifted from French web development firm Central Test.