Paul Rozin was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the University of Chicago, receiving an A.B in 1956, and received a PhD in both Biology and Psychology from Harvard, in 1961. His thesis research was sponsored by Jean Mayer. He has been a member of the Psychology Department at the University of Pennsylvania for 57 years, where he is currently Emeritus Professor of Psychology.

Over the last 35 years, the major focus of his research has been human food choice, considered from biological, psychological and anthropological perspectives. During this period, he has studied the cultural evolution of cuisine, the development of food aversions, the development of food preferences, family influences in preference development, body image, the acquisition of liking for chili pepper, chocolate craving, and attitudes to meat.

Most recently, major foci of attention have been the emotion of disgust, and how disgust can be a barrier to public acceptance of new technologies or foods (e.g., genetically modified foods, recycled water, insects), and the meaning of food in different cultures.

Paul Rozin is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recipient of the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. He was an editor of the journal, Appetite, for ten years.

Two of the many foods that came to the Eastern Hemisphere from the Americas after 1500 are chocolate and chlii pepper. In their natural forms, both are initially very aversive, chili pepper on account of its oral irritant properties and chocolate because of bitterness.

In spite of this discouraging start, both became widely consumed and valued, chili pepper as a flavor principle, and chocolate primarily as a confection and beverage. It is not clear why they had such different fates, and their fates are in contrast to another part of the “Columbian exchange,” tomatoes.