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.”
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.
#23 Indeed. The last 2 versions are buggy & slow as hell. No idea why if I connect the laptop thru HDMI it gets faster (and I don’t wanna know)
#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.
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.
#38 No doubt you love to be called ignorant sheeple. I good reminder I should never stop called you that way.
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.