That’s Disgusting!
With Paul Rozin, PhD
Wednesday, April 17 at 7 pm on Zoom
Register or email info@eastfallsvillage.org to receive the Zoom link
Dr. Paul Rozin has been called the world’s leading expert on disgust and was profiled in a New York Times Magazine article, “How Disgust Explains Everything”.
Now 87, he has taught psychology at the University of Pennsylvania since 1963 and served as the department chair.
Dr. Rozin has long studied the role of food in human life, but in the early 1980’s, he noticed there was little data available on disgust, and that it influences much of our lives. He has studied what humans eat – and what divides “yum” from “yuck.”
His interest in disgust started with meat. Why were people more disgusted with a moldy steak than a moldy apple? He coined the word “omnivore’s dilemma.” He realized that food disgust was not a biological phenomenon, but that it varied across cultures. But other things cause disgust, too – stinky armpits, cockroaches.
He also coined the term “benign masochism” – for experiences that can be pleasurable because of its unpleasantness – horror movies, roller coasters, hot chili peppers.
Dr. Rozin will be introduced by someone who has known him all her life – his daughter, Lillian, who teaches yoga for East Falls Village!