Internet Explorer Users Might Not Be Borderline Retarded After All

Remember that story last week about the intelligence of the average Internet Explorer user barely registering above what modern medicine classifies as mentally retarded? Well, it was an elaborate hoax, apparently.

Reports the BBC:

A story which suggested that users of Internet Explorer have a lower IQ than people who chose other browsers appears to have been an elaborate hoax. A number of media organisations, including the BBC, reported on the research, put out by Canadian firm ApTiquant. It later emerged that the company’s website was only recently set up and staff images were copied from a legitimate business in Paris. It is unclear who was behind the stunt. The story was reported by many high profile organisations including CNN, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and Forbes.

…

Thumbnail images of the firm’s staff on the website also matched those on the site of French research company Central Test, although many of the names had been changed…ApTiquant issued a press release claiming that it had invited 100,000 web users to take IQ tests and matched their results with the type of browser they used. It also supplied extensive research data.

So the question remains — what sort of dastardly person would go to such lengths to shame Microsoft’s Internet Explorer? I think we can confidently identify at least one suspect…

(Dumb and Dumber still via)