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Open research questions in Humor Studies and Applications

365 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 3,293 Humor Studies and Applications papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • The paper notes the challenge of understanding the complexities of religion and its relation to humor. It identifies the difficulty of integrating humor into therapeutic practices. The study acknowledges the limitation of its own methodology and the need for further research.

    Integration of Religious Humor into Therapeutic Practices: Perspectives from the Philosophy of Erich Fromm and Seinto Oniisan · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a lack of systematic reconsideration of the therapeutic potential of religious humor. It notes the scarcity of recorded applications of humor in Erich Fromm's clinical practice.

    Integration of Religious Humor into Therapeutic Practices: Perspectives from the Philosophy of Erich Fromm and Seinto Oniisan · 2026 · DOI

  • However, the extent to which this perception is influenced by social context remains unclear.

    Funny Boys, Reluctant Girls? The Interaction Between Gender Stereotypes and Humour in Children · 2026 · DOI

  • Large language models (LLMs) have been shown to generate authentic narratives, yet how personalization and narrative affective style, such as humor, jointly shape older adults' responses remains unknown.

    When a Story Feels Like Mine: How Personalized Narratives and Humor Shape Older Adults' Empathy toward LLM-Generated Peer Health Stories · 2026

  • While domain-general executive functions like inhibitory control (IC) and working memory capacity (WMC) are known to influence language comprehension, their specific, stage-dependent contributions to the neural mechanisms underlying humor processing remain unclear.

    The impact of inhibitory control and working memory capacity on verbal-humor processing: an ERP investigation · 2026 · DOI

  • Despite the pervasive influence of humor in society, comprehensive quantitative studies exploring its dimensions and societal reception are scarce.

    Breaking down the laughter: an exploration into the linguistic dimensions in stand-up comedy ratings · 2024 · DOI

  • However, little is known about how the use of humor by clown doctors changes in relation to the developmental age of patients.

    Jesters of Well-Being: Examining the Relationship between Clown Doctors and Patients · 2024 · DOI

  • There is a lack of understanding about the role of humour as a coping mechanism among university students. Previous studies have not explored the lived experiences of undergraduate students using humour as a means of coping with academic stress and social challenges.

    Lived experiences of humour as a coping strategy in higher education · 2026 · DOI

  • The mechanism by which humour performs cognitive reappraisal to reduce perceived social danger and boost self-efficacy in emotionally charged scenarios (public speaking, presentations) is theoretically proposed but not empirically tested with direct measurement of self-esteem changes or anxiety reduction in students using humour.

    Lived experiences of humour as a coping strategy in higher education · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in understanding how anger culture becomes established in organizations. The study suggests that prior research has focused on individual emotion regulation or toxic supervisors, rather than the reorganization of localized emotional selection pressures.

    Meme Breaker: A Theory of Actors Who Reorganize Emotional Selection Pressures and Transform Local Cultures · 2026 · DOI

  • Its strength lies in the fact that the Meme Breaker concept could be examined not merely at the level of abstract civilizational theory or general organizational theory, but in relation to concrete workplace communication processes. Third, the measurability of emotional selection pressure needs to be examined. In addition, while this study indicates the broad scope of the Meme Breaker concept, its actual analytical object was limited to a localized workplace environment.

    Meme Breaker: A Theory of Actors Who Reorganize Emotional Selection Pressures and Transform Local Cultures · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of research on humor in older adults. Previous studies have focused on the developmental aspects of humor, but relatively little research has examined humor in older adults.

    “Keep joking”: appreciation and production of humor in aging · 2026 · DOI

  • One challenge is the difficulty of defining and identifying islamophobic memes. Another challenge is the need to consider the context in which these memes are shared.

    Multimodal hate speech: the case of Islamophobic memes · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should consider the impact of these memes on individuals and society. It should also explore the ways in which these memes can be countered.

    Multimodal hate speech: the case of Islamophobic memes · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the mechanisms of hate speech and verbal humour. The research aims to fill this gap by analyzing auto- and hetero-stereotypes about immigrants and Germans in German social media.

    Humour or hatespeech: auto- and hetero-stereotypes linked to the concepts of Alman and Kana(c)ke in Kiezdeutsch · 2026 · DOI

  • The resource includes Submission entries, which may lack sufficient documentation and exhibit noise - The use of SigLIP's vision encoder may not capture all aspects of meme meaning

    SemioMeme: A Symbolic–Subsymbolic Knowledge Graph Dataset for Multimodal Meme Analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • Further development of SemioMeme to include additional features and capabilities - Application of SemioMeme to other domains, such as social media analysis and recommendation systems

    SemioMeme: A Symbolic–Subsymbolic Knowledge Graph Dataset for Multimodal Meme Analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • Exploring the use of other types of machine learning models. Analyzing the structural features of other types of poems. Applying the approach to other languages and cultures.

    Four Lines, Different Deaths: Exploring the Classification of Humor in Calaveritas Poems · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of a systematic approach to classifying Calaveritas poems. The need to explore the structural features of these poems. The limited use of machine learning approaches in poetry analysis.

    Four Lines, Different Deaths: Exploring the Classification of Humor in Calaveritas Poems · 2026 · DOI

  • Investigate the causal relationship between laughter and perceived similarity. Examine the role of laughter in building social connections. Explore the applications of the study's findings in improving social interactions.

    Laughter Indicates Perceived Similarity Among Friends and Strangers · 2026 · DOI

  • Little research has investigated the relationship between laughter and perceived similarity among friends and strangers. Prior work has not measured both perceived and actual similarity to investigate which is more predictive of nonverbal behavior during conversation.

    Laughter Indicates Perceived Similarity Among Friends and Strangers · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should continue to explore the factors that influence laughter contagion. The study's findings suggest that considering the type of laughter and its perceived authenticity may be important in social interactions.

    Laughter Contagion Varies by Laughter Type and Perceived Authenticity · 2026 · DOI

  • Little empirical work has measured actual laughter contagion, much less the contextual variables that predict it. The study addresses this gap by investigating the effect of laughter type on the odds of a participant laughing in response to a recorded laugh.

    Laughter Contagion Varies by Laughter Type and Perceived Authenticity · 2026 · DOI

  • The Enlightenment's hierarchical insinuations continue to inform contemporary conceptualizations of subjectivity. The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the relationship between comedy and human subjectivity.

    From the ‘R’ Word to the ‘S’ Word: Mike Epps’s Comedic Commentary on Subjectivity · 2026 · DOI

  • The prevalence and effects of humour in childhood studies had not been studied so far, - There is a lack of research on the role of humour in the research process with children

    Humour in studies with children and its effects on the child-perspective research process · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Humor Studies and Applications

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365 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 3,293 Humor Studies and Applications papers in our 4.5M-paper local library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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