To Promote Safe Driving, Phone Companies Have Recently Designed Apps

Essay

To promote safe driving, phone companies have recently designed apps that disable the text messaging capabilities of a cell phone when traveling more than 10 MPH. As a psychologist, you are aware of the research that shows thought suppression can lead to a rebound effect, whereby people think of the forbidden item more. You are curious whether these safe driving apps have the unanticipated effect of creating greater distraction and ultimately leading to impaired driving. How would you design an experiment to test whether these types of apps promote or inhibit safe driving? Be sure to clearly identify your independent and dependent variables, as well as what happens in your experimental and control conditions.