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Paul Rozin

Paul Rozin

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Professor Rozin's research interests include cultural psychology, acquisition of likes and dislikes for foods, nature and development of the magical belief in contagion, ambivalence to animal foods, lay conception of risk of infection and toxic effects of foods, interaction of moral and health factors in concerns about risks, relation between people's desires to have desires and their actual desires (including the problem of internalization), ethnopolitical conflict, positive psychology, psychology of music, acquisition of culture, nature of cuisine and cultural evolution. His research has been carried out in the United States, France, Japan, and India.

Primary Interests:

  • Attitudes and Beliefs
  • Culture and Ethnicity
  • Health Psychology
  • Intergroup Relations
  • Judgment and Decision Making
  • Political Psychology
  • Self and Identity
  • Sociology, Social Networks

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Video Gallery

36:32 Featured SVG

The Psychology Behind a Memorable Meal and How to Make a Meal Memorable

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  • 36:32

    The Psychology Behind a Memorable Meal and How to Make a Meal Memorable

    Length: 36:32


  • 1:29:27

    The Psychology of Food

    Length: 1:29:27


  • 49:13

    Disgust, and the Tasting Menu and Some Verse

    Length: 49:13


  • 55:48

    Staying Grounded in Times of Change

    Length: 55:48


  • 2:20

    Classical Music is Like a Well-Executed Meal

    Length: 2:20


  • 1:07:39

    The Psychology of Meat

    Length: 1:07:39


  • 1:22:04

    Human Food Choice: Cultural, Biological, Psychological, and Historical Perspectives

    Length: 1:22:04


  • 24:50

    "Continuing the Conversation" Interview

    Length: 24:50


Additional Videos



Journal Articles:

  • Rozin, P. (2007). Exploring the landscape of modern academic psychology: Finding and filling the holes. American Psychologist, 62, 754-766.
  • Rozin, P. (2003). Five potential principles for understanding cultural differences in relation to individual differences. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 273-283.
  • Rozin, P. (2001). Social psychology and science: Some lessons from Solomon Asch. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 2-14.
  • Rozin, P. (1999). Food is fundamental, fun, frightening, and far-reaching. Social Research, 66, 9-30.
  • Rozin, P. (1999). The process of moralization. Psychological Science, 10, 218-221.
  • Rozin, P., Fischler, C., Imada, S., Sarubin, A., & Wrzesniewski, A. (1999). Attitudes to food and the role of food in life: Comparisons of Flemish Belgium, France, Japan and the United States. Appetite, 33, 163-180.
  • Rozin, P., Kabnick, K., Pete, E., Fischler, C., & Shields, C. (2003). The ecology of eating: Part of the French paradox results from lower food intake in French than Americans, because of smaller portion sizes. Psychological Science, 14, 450-454.
  • Rozin, P., Lowery, L., Imada, S., & Haidt, J. (1999). The CAD triad hypothesis: A mapping between three moral emotions (contempt, anger, disgust) and three moral codes (community, autonomy, divinity). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(4), 574-586.
  • Rozin, P., & Royzman, E. (2001). Negativity bias, negativity dominance, and contagion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 296-320.

Other Publications:

  • Rozin, P. (1990). Getting to like the burn of chili pepper: Biological, psychological and cultural perspectives. In B. G. Green, J. R. Mason & M. R. Kare (Eds.), Chemical senses, Vol. 2: Irritation (pp. 231-269). New York: Marcel Dekker.
  • Rozin, P. (1990). Social and moral aspects of eating. In I. Rock (Ed.), The legacy of Solomon Asch: Essays in cognition and social psychology (pp. 97-110). Potomac, MD: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Rozin, P. (1982). Human food selection: The interaction of biology, culture and individual experience. In L. M. Barker (Ed.), The psychobiology of human food selection (pp. 225-254).
  • Rozin, P., Haidt, J., & McCauley, C.R. (1993). Disgust. In M. Lewis, & J. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of emotions, (pp. 575-594). New York: Guilford.
  • Rozin, P., & Nemeroff, C. (2002). Sympathetic magical thinking: the contagion and similarity “heuristics”. In: Gilovich, T., Griffin, D., & Kahneman, D. Heuristics and biases. The psychology of intuitive judgment. (Pp. 201-216). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Rozin, P., & Nemeroff, C.J. (1990). The laws of sympathetic magic: A psychological analysis of similarity and contagion. In J. Stigler, G. Herdt, & R.A. Shweder (Eds.), Cultural Psychology: Essays on comparative human development (pp. 205-232). Cambridge, England: Cambridge.

Courses Taught:

  • Introduction to Experimental Psychology
  • Proseminar in Cultural Psychology
  • Research in sociocultural psychology

Paul Rozin
Department of Psychology
University of Pennsylvania
3720 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6241
United States of America

  • Phone: (215) 898-7632
  • Fax: (215) 898-1982

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