I could make this kind of stuff into a World of it's own, separate from this World! Consider this part 2 of questionable net-news, like the Fuji TV boycott item.
In case anyone didn't come across this news item a couple of days ago, here's a link to it: Internet Explorer IQ Study. Basically, the study claimed that people who use IE scored lower on IQ tests than others who used browsers like Firefox or Chrome. However...
Yeah, it was a hoax. It's quite surprising that it was picked up by major news sources such as Canada's own QMI Agency (think of it as a Canadian Reuters), BBC, and Forbes, to name a few. But some astute BBC readers did some digging around and found out that it was fake news. So, let me get this straight: Major news media sources didn't find out this was fake until after some readers checked how reliable the information and sources were? In other words, QMI Agency, et al, didn't really check their sources.
On the hoax website aptiquant.com, after the fake study was revealed as such, it gave some tell-tales signs that it was a hoax (my favorite: "6. The website is made in WordPress. Come on now!"). Also amusing was the line about AptiQuant having "self-serving tools for individuals looking to identify their skills and reach their potential." That probably sounded credible to anyone looking for the quick news-bite, especially when it's cloaked in the "scientific" (and, sadly, vague) language of self-help seminars. Who wouldn't be impressed by that statement coming from a "psychometric consulting company"?
QMI Agency "regrets the error" of reporting fake news as real news.
Personally, I give credit to the idea that people have "Cartesian common sense", as Chomksy would say, where people just have to make the effort to find out things for themselves:
There are questions that are hard. There are areas where you need specialized knowledge. I'm not suggesting a kind of anti-intellectualism. But the point is that many things can be understood quite well without a very far-reaching, specialized knowledge. And in fact even a specialized knowledge in these areas is not beyond the reach of people who happen to be interested. "What the World is Really Like: Who Knows it -- and Why" Noam Chomsky
