AptiQuant Browser/IQ Study Was Likely a Hoax

A steady stream of people have submitted notes this morning saying that the story we (and the entire internet, and even NPR's Marketplace) mentioned recently talking about browser platform correlating with IQ looks like a hoax. Of course, if you read the Slashdot discussion, you probably would have known this already, but now everyone knows. The company responsible for the survey, AptiQuant, looks to not be real.

I knew immediately

[airconswitch]

After all, I use Opera.

Not real?!!

[PPH]

Say it ain't so Ms. Zuckerburg. They have a web page [aptiquant.com] with a Facebook link. They've got to be real [slashdot.org]. Right?

A follow-up study showed...

[Registered Coward v2]

...Internet Explorer users, on average, fell for the hoax the most, with IE6 users most likely to believe it was real and IE8 users being somewhat less gullible. Firefox, Chrome and Safari users fared somewhat better as they tended to not believe it as much as the IE users. IE with Chrome Frame and Camino users almost never believed the hoax, while Opera users immediately new it not to be true.

Re:Appearances

[Coolhand2120]

Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is great, but what they conceal is essential.

Re:It speaks volumes that we all believed it

[Anonymous Coward]

I use IE. I'm one of the smartest IT people in my circles

There's no-one else in that basement, is there?