Here are my thoughts about the “Internet Explorer users have a lower IQ” story that turned out to be a hoax. Because you asked for them. Didn’t you?
Clearly the most obvious point of discussion here is how so many reputable news outlets could unquestioningly run the ‘study’ and its results—especially since it was from an unknown company, and with a wholly unbelievable press release with phrases like “teeny bit” and without a P-value in sight. But I’ll leave that to one side for today.
My first reaction to the revelation that the study was a hoax is that it just doesn’t matter. Since I posted the link on Twitter and Facebook, some people have been replying to me pointing out that the results were faked, with a little bit too much apparent enjoyment. The fact is, I didn’t post it for its accuracy, nor because I wanted to vouch for its conclusions or its scientific value. I posted it, as did most people, because it’s a great headline.
“Internet Explorer users have a lower than average IQ, according to research by Consulting firm AptiQuant.”
Just great. It may not be truthful, but it was certainly truthy.
However, I don’t think most people who read it believed that Internet Explorer users had a 10-point lower IQ that users of other browsers, or that IE6 users had an average IQ of 80 (categorised as ‘borderline deficiency’). Regardless, it’s a funny sentiment, and one that was made for sharing on Facebook and Twitter. Whether it was actually true was clearly peripheral, and that’s why I don’t think it particularly matters that it was shown to be a hoax.
A reaction that I didn’t expect, however, was how a lot of people have been saying that Internet Explorer users aren’t any less intelligent, because this study was fake, or similar. This is clearly a logical non sequitur and I’m finding it hard to believe that people really do think along those lines. I’m not saying that Internet Explorer users are less intelligent, just that it prompts further research.
The methodology that AptiQuant described doesn’t actually seem to have any fundamental flaws, and could be put into practice to answer the question fairly definitively. The biggest issue would probably be the potential for self-selection to bias the results—are the kind of people that would stumble on an online IQ test likely to have a higher or lower IQ than the average, regardless of their browser?
I’ve been thinking about it, and I don’t really think that any research into this would reveal much of a statistically significant link between use of Internet Explorer and IQ. If such a link did exist, it would rely on a strong link between technological ability and overall intelligence (as I think we can agree that the more savvy you are, the less likely you are to use Internet Explorer). I don’t know if there’s any evidence covering this, but I doubt this link is strong enough, or even exists at all apart from at the far lower IQ ranges, where intelligence may be a limiting factor to technological competence. Simply put, I don’t think you have to be stupid to stick with Internet Explorer; I think you have to have a low level of technological savvy. Moreover, I would imagine that the confounding effects of people not choosing their browser themselves (think companies insisting on Internet Explorer 6, and teens switching their parents over to Firefox or Chrome) would make a statistically significant effect very unlikely.
But, as I’ve previously argued, I don’t think the question of truthfulness is the most important thing about this story. What it has undoubtedly shown is that the media will run with anything. Whether it will achieve the creator’s stated aim of raising awareness of the persistent use of 10-year-old versions of Internet Explorer, however, remains to be seen.
You make some very good points. What I find unbelievable is that even media organisations who I would consider to be reputable (like the BBC, no less), can be taken in by this rather questionable story. They then have to effectively retract the story by sheepishly revealing that it’s a hoax.
Probably like most people who saw the headline, I read the story, and I certainly had my doubts. We all have our preferred web browsers. Some people like using Firefox, while others (like me) prefer Chrome. There will also be people who favour Internet Explorer (or are forced to use it by corporate IT departments), but that isn’t to say they’re any less intelligent. Indeed, many people use Internet Explorer through choice; they may even have used alternative browsers and gone back to Internet Explorer for whatever reason. This does not show stupidity, but rather the freedom to choose.
I think the lesson that the media can learn from this is that they need to be more careful with the stories they publish, rather than just leaping at the next opportunity for a snappy headline. If that means they will need to take more time verifying the credibility of their sources, so be it.
This is a good piece! I think the idea of ‘truthiness’ is really interesting and I do think that the media might not have been so quick to run the story if it had said the opposite. I think the idea that IE explorers have lower IQ is easy to accept because it has some kind of intuitive reality, especially for those more technologically able. Therefore, it was easy to run without challenging the research. Savviness, as you say, is definitely more likely than IQ to affect browser use. And I think it depends upon the people a person has around them – I wouldn’t be using Chrome and Linux, for example, if it weren’t for my extremely computer-able boyfriend!
I do love that someone went to so much effort for this hoax – it does sounds like a Daily Mash headline, now I think about it…