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UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
Naturalized
(2009), received highly favourable reviews.
It has been taught in graduate seminars around the
world and has been the subject of book symposia at
four international conferences. A follow-up collection of
essays titled
Scientific Metaphysics
, which he co-edits
with professors Ladyman and Kincaid, is expected for
publication in 2013.
Professor Ross has produced 13 major policy reports
for clients such as the National Department of Trade
and Industry. Between 2006 and 2010, he was director
of research for the National Responsible Gambling
Programme. He has taught and applied game theory
throughout his career, and it informs the majority of his
work. He is the author of the game-theory article in the
Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy
.
Dynamic leadership in
global research
UCT's School of Economics' Professor Harold Kincaid was
recognised as an international leader in his field by the
National Research Foundation in 2012. Professor Kincaid
joined UCT from the University of Alabama at Birmingham,
USA, where he had been professor of philosophy, sociology,
and epidemiology.
Broadly, his research has focused on the methodologies of
social science and he has published on a host of related
topics, including causal modelling, the philosophy of social
science, the role of explanation as a concept in social
sciences, and the medical models of addiction.
"My main focus has been on trying to sort good science
from bad science."More recently, his interest has turned to
how social scientists infer causes and correlations.
That last category reflects some of Professor Kincaid's
recent work at UCT. He has contributed to a few projects
with the Research Unit in Behavioural Economics and
Neuroeconomics (RUBEN), an interdisciplinary group of
researchers in the School of Economics that uses economic
experiments to examine the role that social, cognitive, and
emotional factors play in economic decision-making.
At RUBEN, Professor Kincaid has been involved in studies
looking at the prevalence of gambling in South Africa, and
at problem gamblers and at-risk gamblers.
There are particular dynamics to local gambling, he
explains. In South Africa, it is by and large the poor who
have serious gambling problems. Rather than frequenting
casinos, they stake their money on informal and illegal
enterprises, such as dice and card games, and the lotto-like
numbers game called iFafi.
Professor Kincaid’s current research includes a project
funded by the NRF, that looks at the risk behaviour of fruit
farmers, as well as a study among the poor in Cape Town
and Atlanta (USA), which draws on behavioural economics
to consider risk and time attitudes, as well as the social
and economic factors involved in transitions in and out of
extreme poverty.
New frontiers: Chemistry, the
brain and behaviour
A world leader and pioneer in the multidisciplinary field
of hormones, the brain, and human social-emotional
behaviour, Professor Jack van Honk received an A rating
from the National Research Foundation in 2012.
Almost 15 years ago he became the world's first researcher
to use both hormonal manipulation and brain-stimulation
techniques to gain direct insight into the psychobiological
mechanisms underlying human social-emotional behaviour.
Professor Harold Kincaid
Professor Jack van Honk
NRF Ratings