Standardized testing assumes a general line of knowledge at certain ages for all students, regardless of social background and individual development. An interesting topic for a research paper on education would be to examine how effects other than age contribute to intellectual development to analyze whether standardized testing is an inherently unfair method of testing.
It sometimes seems as there is an addiction out there for everybody. One of the most recent additions to the long list is makeup addiction. A research paper into this topic could begin by questioning whether spending more money than you need on cosmetics actually qualifies as an addiction. If your research leads you to agree that this is an actual disorder, you could delve into the causes of makeup addiction. A more expansive research paper could analyze whether this type of addiction is another symptom of adverse reactions on women's self-esteem by the advertising industry.
Movies have created a new concept of the zombie as a dead person rising from the grave to eat brains. The real-life inspiration for zombies paints a much different story and it is a story that is considered intensely real and authentic. This research paper topic will take you into the strange world of voodoo as well as the almost mundane world of using neurotoxins derived from the puffer fish.
NASCAR stock car racing is a national sport today that enjoys lucrative television contracts and produces millionaire racers. As recently as the early 1990s, NASCAR was still very much a regional sport enjoyed mostly in the southern U.S. You could write a research paper that seeks to explain exactly how NASCAR became such an enormous sport in America almost overnight after languishing in relative isolation for decades. Focus on the marketing strategies and seek to draw a parallel to the collapse of national interest in Indy-style racing during the 1980s.