?Internet Explorer for the Dumb? Study Threatened with Lawsuit

AptiQuant, an online psychometric testing company, recently released a study claiming that Internet Explorer users are the dumbest. Now, it's threatened with a lawsuit against that study.

To conduct the study, AptiQuant gave 100,000 Internet users free online IQ tests. Then, they plotted the results by the browsers they used. What they found was that Internet Explorer users had the lowest IQ.

The IQ by browser ranking, from the highest to lowest, is Opera, Camino, IE with Chrome Frame, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.

AptiQuant emphasized that the study results reflect that "individuals on the lower side of the IQ scale tend to resist a change/upgrade of their browsers." This, in turn, reflects the general correlation between tech-savviness and IQ.

Internet Explorer has long been the default and dominant web browser. Over the last few years, alternatives such as Firefox, Chrome, and Opera emerged. The people who tended to switch to these alternatives from Internet Explorer were tech savvy and therefore more likely to have higher IQs.

Loyal Internet Explorer users, however, are not happy with the study.

AptiQuant claims to have received hate email from Internet Explorer users. Moreover, a group of Internet Explorer users are threatening the company with a lawsuit.

Leonard Howard, the CEO of the company, said he's not threatened by the lawsuit because the study and its claims are backed with data.

"A win in a court would only give a stamp of approval and more credibility to our report," said Howard.

"The report released by my company did not suggest that if you use IE that means you have a low IQ, but what it really says is that if you have a low IQ then there are high chances that you use Internet Explorer," added Howard.

The full text of the study is here.