Adam 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 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He has had grant funding from the Notre Dame Science of Generosity program, the Templeton Foundation, NSF, DARPA, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Army Research Institute.   

Professor Cohen is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, the 2009 recipient of the Margaret Gorman award from the American Psychological Association, the 2013 Godin Prize winner from the International Association for the Psychology of Religion, and the 2012 Gumby Award winner from the ASU Department of Psychology.