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Hoffman, Jan. "An Unexpected Road Hazard: Obesity." New York Times (blog). N.p., 21 Jan. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2013. New studies now show that obesity has other risks. From statistics on height and weight from drivers who have been in a car accident with at least fatality, they were categorized based on BMI (Body Mass Index). Based on this data, the higher the BMI, the more likely a driver was to die in an accident. The rationality behind the associations are unclear, but they probably involve the poor health of obese people and vehicle design, because crash-tests are usually done with average-sized adult and human dummies. Other factors that could have affected death rates could not explain these differences.

Stafford, Tom. "The psychology of why cyclists enrage car drivers." BBC. BBC, 13 Feb 2013. Web. 14 Feb 2013. Tom Stafford suggests the possible cause for why cyclists aggravate other road users. The car riders becomes frustrated at the cyclists since the people on bike can use the same road as them but do not have to follow the same rules. Stafford relates this situation to the "free rider problem," which is an issue in the society where small portion of the community skip their duty. The duty addressed here is the individual's role in the community that will produce load on the other members if they do not accomplish it. He also insists that the notion of altruistic punishment is strongly linked to the car rider's fury. Altruistic punishment is a psychological term that indicates the strong desire to impose punishments on others that does not bring direct benefit. Usually, the person who provokes altruistic punishment has to pay some form of cost. The car riders have to pay the cost by distracting their mood while angering at the cyclists. They build up strong desires to fix the cyclists' road manners and to impose them punishments for their misbehaviors in the drivers' perspective. Altruistic punishment also possesses the power to bring together the individuals carrying the same issue. These individuals will act in the same direction to resolve the issue. For example, the emergence of altruistic punishment can function to prevent the "free rider problem" since people will be watching over each other for possible faults. Stafford insists that the issue over the road manners of the bike riders and the car riders can be solved by altruistic punishment.

In a sense, I kind of connect the notion of altruistic punishment with the reasons why people judge others based on their bias. As we discussed in the previous class, some individuals judge others based on their physical appearances. They will often create conflict with the others by insisting about their weight and look. Doing so does not bring them any benefit, yet they still desire to impose punishments on them; often times in verbal forms. These punishments do not trace morality or civility, though, since they are simply based on their complacence. As a result, the self-centered judgments sometimes can develop into a serious issue. The people who give biased judgments believe strongly that the people they judge have an issue, and they consider that they are doing the right thing by giving the judgments. This situation is very similar to the process of the car drivers becoming enraged at cyclists. The only difference is that the target of the altruistic punishment in this is not doing anything that opposes the moral behavior. The people being judged are obviously not "free riders" since they are not putting any form of load upon others. Thus, although altruistic punishment may sometimes function to improve the society, they can also do the exact opposite.