Dr.Paul Rozin, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading researcher on attitudes and behavior related to food, will explore why people like or dislike certain foods, and how disgust responses vary and develop in a lecture at Berea College on February 23. His talk “Food is Frightening, Fun and Fundamental” is scheduled at 3 p.m. in Phelps Stokes Chapel.

The annual Berea College Science Lecture is free and open to the public.

Some of Rozin’s other research focuses include the nature and development of the magical belief in contagion, cultural ambivalence to animal foods, lay conception of risk of infection and toxic effects of foods, the interaction of moral and health factors in concerns about risks, the acquisition of culture, the nature of cuisine, and cultural evolution.. In addition to the U.S.A,. Rozin has carried out comparative research studies in France, Belgium, Japan and India.

Rozin earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and his PhD. in biology and psychology from Harvard University. He began teaching psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1963, and in 1977 was named the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor. Rozin also currently serves as co-director of the university’s Solomon Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, which uses social psychology research to devise workable strategies for addressing conflicts with public policies worldwide.

For a complete listing of Berea College Convocations for 2005-06, visit online at www.berea.edu/convo.