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Adam Cohen

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Psychology
Associate Professor
Faculty, TEMPE Campus, Mailcode 1104
Psychology
Assoc Professor
Faculty, TEMPE Campus, Mailcode 1104
Physics
Assoc Professor
Faculty, TEMPE Campus, Mailcode 1104
Biography

 

Associate Professor, Department of Psychology (Social), College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

 

Education

PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 2000

Research Interests

Dr. Cohen's main research interests fuse cultural, social, and personality psychology. He is interested in how religious differences function as cultural differences, affecting domains including religious identity and motivation, well-being, moral judgment, forgiveness, and the like. Cohen is also interested in applying evolutionary theory to religion.  He is associate editor of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and on the editorial boards of several other leading journals.

He has had grant funding from the Notre Dame Science of Generosity program (Dr. Carolyn Warner, PI) to study generosity among European Catholics and Muslims; and from NSF to study ethinicity, religion, and forgiveness for mass atrocities (such as slavery and the Holocaust). He has current grant funding from the Templeton Foundation to study religion and volunteer behavior (with Drs. Morris Okun and Kathryn Johnson), and DARPA to study narrative persuasion and the brain.  

Dr. Cohen is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, the 2009 recipient of the Margaret Gorman award from the American Psychological Association, and the 2012 Gumby Award winner from the ASU Department of Psychology.

CV
Binary Data Curriculum Vitae
Publications
  • Cohen, A. B. Many forms of culture. American Psychologist (2009).
  • Cohen, A. B., & Hall, D. E. Existential beliefs, social satisfaction, and well-being among Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant older adults. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion (2009).
  • Cohen, A. B., Malka, A., Hill, E. D., Thoemmes, F., Hill, P. C., & Sundie, J. M. Race as a moderator of the relationship between religiosity and political alignment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (2009).
  • Horberg, E. J., Oveis, C. O., Keltner, D., & Cohen, A. B. Disgust and the moralization of purity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2009).
  • Oveis, C., Cohen, A. B., Gruber, J., Shiota, M. N., & Haidt, J., & Keltner, D. Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia is associated with tonic positive emotionality. Emotion (2009).
  • Cohen, A. B., Shariff, A. F., & Hill, P. C. The accessibility of religious beliefs. Journal of Research in Personality, (2008).
  • Shariff, A. F., Cohen, A. B., & Norenzayan, A. The Devil’s advocate: Secular arguments diminish both implicit and explicit religious beliefs. Journal of Cognition and Culture (2008).
  • Weeden, J., Cohen, A. B., & Kenrick, D. T. Religious participation and reproductive strategies. Evolution and Human Behavior (2008).
  • Adam Cohen, P Hill. Religion as culture: Religious individualism and collectivism among American Catholics, Jews, and Protestants. Journal of Personality (2007).
  • J Siev, Adam Cohen. Is thought-action fusion related to religiosity? Group differences between Jews and Christians. Behavior Research & Therapy (2007).
  • Adam Cohen, A Malka, P Rozin, L Cherfas. Religion and unforgivable offenses. Journal of Personality (2006).
  • L Cherfas, P Rozin, Adam Cohen, A Davidson, C McCauley. The framing of atrocities: Documenting and exploring wide variation in aversion to Germans and German-related activities among Holocaust survivors. Peace & Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology (2006).
  • Adam Cohen, D Hall, H Koenig, K Meador. Social versus individual motivation: Implications for normative definitions of religious orientation. Personality & Social Psychology Review (2005).
  • Adam Cohen, J Pierce, R Meade, J Chambers, B Gorvine, H Koenig. Intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity, belief in the afterlife, death anxiety, and life satisfaction in young Catholic and Protestant adults. Journal of Research in Personality (2005).
  • Adam Cohen, P Rozin, D Keltner. Different religions, different emotions. Behavioral & Brain Sciences (2004).
  • Adam Cohen. Religion, likelihood of action, and the morality of mentality. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion (2003).
  • Adam Cohen, J Siegel, P Rozin. Faith versus practice: Different bases for religiosity judgments by Jews and Protestants. European Journal of Social Psychology (2003).
  • J Abramowitz, J Huppert, Adam Cohen, S Cahill, D Tolin. Religious obsessions and compulsions in a non-clinical sample: The Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity. Behavior Research and Therapy (2002).
  • Cohen. Just how many forms of culture are there?. American Psychologist (0).
  • Cohen Gruber Keltner. Comparing spiritual transformations and experiences of profound beauty. Psychology of religion and spirituality (0).
  • Hill Terrell Cohen Nagoshi. The role of social cognition in the religious fundamentalism-prejudice relationship. Journal Scientific Study Religion (0).
  • Li Cohen Weeden Kenrick. Mating competitors increase religious beliefs. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (0).
  • Cohen, A. B., Hill, P. C., Shariff, A. F., & Rozin, P. Furthering the evolution of discussion on religion: Multi-method study, universality, and cultural variation. The evolution of religion: Studies, theories, and critiques (0).
  • Kwan Johnson Neel Cohen. Anthropomorphism. Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology (0).
Research Activity
Spring 2017
Course NumberCourse Title
PSY 399Supervised Research
PSY 499Individualized Instruction
PSY 591Seminar
Fall 2016
Course NumberCourse Title
PSY 399Supervised Research
PSY 499Individualized Instruction
Spring 2016
Course NumberCourse Title
PSY 399Supervised Research
PSY 499Individualized Instruction
PSY 591Seminar
Fall 2015
Course NumberCourse Title
PSY 399Supervised Research
PSY 499Individualized Instruction
Summer 2015
Course NumberCourse Title
PSY 350Social Psychology
Spring 2015
Course NumberCourse Title
PSY 350Social Psychology
PSY 399Supervised Research
PSY 499Individualized Instruction
Fall 2014
Course NumberCourse Title
PSY 350Social Psychology
PSY 399Supervised Research
PSY 499Individualized Instruction
Summer 2014
Course NumberCourse Title
PSY 350Social Psychology
Spring 2014
Course NumberCourse Title
PSY 350Social Psychology
PSY 399Supervised Research
HON 493Honors Thesis
PSY 499Individualized Instruction
Fall 2013
Course NumberCourse Title
PSY 350Social Psychology
PSY 399Supervised Research
HON 492Honors Directed Study
PSY 499Individualized Instruction
Spring 2013
Course NumberCourse Title
PGS 399Supervised Research
PSY 499Individualized Instruction
Fall 2012
Course NumberCourse Title
PGS 350Social Psychology
PGS 399Supervised Research
PSY 499Individualized Instruction
PSY 591Seminar
Presentations
  • Cohen. 1. Cohen, A. B. (2010, November). There are many forms of culture-including religion. Colloquium delivered at Department of Psychology, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. Speaker (Nov 2010).
  • Cohen. 2. Cohen, A. B. (2010, September). Religion as a form of culture. Colloquium delivered at Sonoma State University. Speaker (Sep 2010).
  • Cohen. 7. Cohen, A. B. (2010, April). There are many forms of culture-including religion. Colloquium, Penn State. Speaker (Apr 2010).
  • Cohen. 9. Cohen, A. B. (2010, January). Race as a moderator of the relationship between religiosity and political alignment. In J. Sasaki and H. Kim (Chairs), The origins, predictors, and moderators of religious beliefs and involvement. Symposium conducted at convention of Society of Personality and Social Psychology, Las Vegas. SPSP Conference (Jan 2010).
  • Cohen. 8. Co-chair in January, 2010 of Religion and support of violence against the outgroup. Symposium conducted at convention of Society of Personality and Social Psychology conference, Las Vegas. Co-chair: Ariel Malka. Speakers: Gilad Hirschberger, Ariel Malka, Jeremy Ginges, Jesse Graham. SPSP conference (Jan 2010).
  • Cohen. There are many forms of culture, including religion. Colloquium, Yeshiva University. Colloquium (Dec 2009).
  • Cohen. There are many forms of culture, including religion. Margaret Gorman Award (early career award, Division 36, APA) invited address presented at American Psychological Association convention, Toronto. APA conference (Aug 2009).
  • White, Li, & Cohen. Culture and religion in the time of cholera. HBES conference (May 2009).
  • Osborne, Li, and Cohen. Unattractive family members make a potential mate less appealing long-term. HBES conference (May 2009).
  • Cohen. The religious roots of American individualism: Implications for religious motivation. In M. Inzlicht (chair), Toward a cognitive science of religion: Insights from personality and social psychology. Symposium conducted at the 21st annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco. APS conference (May 2009).
  • Johnson & Cohen. Belief in a personal God: Psychological predictors of religious anthropomorphism. Poster presented at the tenth annual conference of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, Tampa, FL. SPSP (Feb 2009).
  • Li, Y. J., Cohen, A. B., & Kenrick, D. T. Religiosity as a context dependent mating strategy: Mating competitors increase belief in God. SPSP (Feb 2009).
  • Cohen, A. B. Symposium discussant. in A. Waytz (chair), Noble savages and savage nobles: Psychological insights into the processes of h (Oct 2008).
  • Cohen, A. B. Religion and culture. Society of Personality and SOcial Psychology (Feb 2008).
  • Cohen, A. B. & Neuberg, S. L. Psychological Omnipresence of Religion. Society of Personality and SOcial Psychology (Feb 2008).
  • Li, Y. J, Cohen, A. B., & Kenrick, D. T. Sociosexual orientation: Fixed trait or malleable strategy. Society of Personality and SOcial Psychology (Feb 2008).
  • Hill, P. C., & Cohen, A. B. Race moderates the relationship between religious fundamentalism and political attitudes. Society of Personality and SOcial Psychology (Feb 2008).
  • Cohen, Adam, Shariff, A, Hill, P. Some preliminary work on implicit religious beliefs. Address delivered at the International Conference on Evolution of Religion (Jan 2007).
  • Cohen, Adam. Religion and unforgivable offenses. Address delivered at the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict (Jun 2006).
  • Cohen, Adam. Dealing with the complexity of religion: A cultural psychological approach (and some methodological and statistical lessons). Address delivered at Washington and Lee University (Mar 2006).
  • Cohen, Adam. The religious roots of American individualism. Address delivered at the cultural psychology preconference of the seventh annual meeting of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology (Jan 2006).
  • Cohen, Adam. Effect of religion on morality and forgiveness (two topics important in ethnopolitical conflict). Address delivered at the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict (Sep 2005).
  • Cohen, Adam, Hansen, I. Religion, culture, and the morality of mentality. Seventeenth annual convention of the American Psychological Society (May 2005).
Service
  • Freshman orientation, attended two orientation lunches (2010 - Present)
  • Co-chair, culture and religion preconferences, spsp, co-chair (2010 - Present)
  • Editorial board: Frontiers in Cultural Psychology, SPPS, JPSP, JSSR, Religion, Brain & Behavior, editorial boards (2010 - Present)
  • Faculty eval committee, member and chair (2010 - Present)
  • PGS 101 committee, member (2010 - Present)
  • grant reviewer, Fund Scientific Research, Belgium, reviewer (2010 - Present)
  • special issue on religion, JCCP, to appear 2011-2012, guest editor (2010 - Present)
  • Faculty Evaluation Committee, Department of Psychology., member (2009 - Present)
  • Academic advisory board, Center for Jewish Studies., member (2009 - Present)
  • Ad hoc reviewer, Ad hoc reviewer (2009 - Present)
  • Faculty advisor to PGS questionnaire, faculty advisor (2009 - Present)
  • Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Editorial board (2009 - Present)
  • Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Guest editor, special issue on religion (2009 - Present)
  • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Consulting editor (2009 - Present)
  • Panel member on Preparing Future Faculty., Panel member (2009 - Present)
  • Psychology, Chair, Darwyn Linder award committee, Department of Psychology. (2009 - Present)
  • Religion, Brain, and Behavior, Editorial board (2009 - Present)
  • Journal of Personality, Ad hoc reviewer (2006 - Present)
  • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Ad hoc reviewer (2006 - Present)
  • Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Ad hoc reviewer (2006 - Present)
  • Psychology Department, Advisor to PGS 101 Questionnaire (2008 - 2008)
  • Ad hoc journal reviewing, reviewer (2008 - 2008)
  • Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity, Faculty affiliate (2008 - 2008)
  • Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, Faculty affiliate (2008 - 2008)
  • Hillel, Committee on Developing a Moral Compass (2008 - 2008)
  • Jewish studies program, Faculty affiliate (2008 - 2008)
  • Psychology, Committee member, Darwyn Linder Award Committee (2007 - 2007)
  • Social area search committee, department of psychology, Participant (2007 - 2007)