Professor Zablocki’s interests include the sociology of religion, community, the social psychology of influence and charisma, the sociology of the adult life course, and the relationship between believing and belonging over time.  His publications include: The Joyful Community, Alienation and Charisma, and Misunderstanding Cults.  His research has also appeared in journals including: The Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Nova Religio, The Annual Review of Sociology, and The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science.  His current projects include: a longitudinal study of the transformation of idealism from youth to middle age, a study of the vicissitudes of the discipleship relationship over time, and a study of the systematic regularities in the births and early years of new religious movements.  His research has been generously funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Russell Sage Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the Templeton Foundation.

Professor Zablocki is also the principal investigator of the Urban Communes Data Set.  This includes what is probably one of the largest existing sets of longitudinal network data from naturally occurring groups of adults available for sociological research.