Project description
We are recruiting a PhD student for the project Understanding vaccination hesitancy by studying the reasons and emotions of irregular individuals. The project aims to advance knowledge of why some people are opposed to vaccination and how such opposition can be reduced. Vaccination hesitancy is the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines. It seems that multiple factors contribute to vaccination hesitancy, such as misinformation, distrust of science, government, and pharmaceutical industry, and complacency. This project will examine irregular individuals, individuals who favor (or oppose) vaccination despite having traits and identities that make them prone to oppose (or favor) vaccination. Studying such atypical cases will advance knowledge of the factors that increase and decrease vaccination hesitancy. The project involves a funded PhD project and is scheduled to start in 2020.

The project is organized within the Herbert Simon Research Institute of the Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences and is a cross-departmental collaboration between researchers from Social Psychology (Dr. Florian van Leeuwen), Sociology (Prof. Peter Achterberg), and Tranzo (Dr. Marielle Cloin and Dr. Ien van de Goor). The PhD student will be embedded within the department Social Psychology. A more detailed project description is available upon request from Dr. Florian van Leeuwen.

Tasks

• Designing and conducting (experimental) research;
• Presenting research findings at scientific conferences;
• Reporting research findings in international journals, resulting in a dissertation;
• Participating in the Kurt Lewin Institute;
• Participating in teaching at the Social Psychology department.

Selection criteria

• A completed master’s degree (preferably Research Master) in (social) psychology, sociology, health sciences or related discipline by the starting date of the project;
• Expertise and experience in empirical research;
• Knowledge of statistics (e.g. analyses of variance, regression) and statistical packages (e.g., SPSS, R, Stata);
• Willingness to learn necessary additional methodological and statistical skills;
• Fluency in spoken English and excellent writing skills in English;
• Willingness and proven ability to work independently, but also to collaborate with the team; 
• Experience with quantitative and qualitative health research is a plus, but not required.

Fixed-term contract: start with a period of 12 months, continuation with 36 months based on performance evaluation.

Tilburg University is among the top Dutch employers and has an excellent policy concerning terms of employment. The collective employment terms and conditions for Dutch universities will apply. The appointment is intended to lead to the completion of a PhD thesis. The PhD appointment begins with a period of 12 months. Continuation of the appointment with another 36 months will be based on performance evaluation. The gross salary for the PhD position amounts € 2325 per month in the first year, rising to € 2972 per month in the fourth year, based on a full-time appointment (38 hours per week). 

The preferred starting date is 1 September 2020. Applicants who are current students should include information about expected graduation date in the cover letter.

Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (TSB) is a modern, specialized university. The teaching and research of the Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences are organized around the themes of Adaptive societies, organizations, and workers, Healthy life span, Personalized prevention and care. The School's inspiring working environment challenges its workers to realize their ambitions; involvement and cooperation are essential to achieve this.

Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Department of Social Psychology

The Department of Social Psychology at Tilburg University (The Netherlands) is a vibrant group of Social, Economic, and Organizational psychologists. Our department fosters an intellectually stimulating and productive environment, advancing knowledge on social decision making and contributing to the effective practices of organizations and society. Our research receives high recognition, both nationally and internationally, and our faculty participates in the interdisciplinary research institute TIBER (Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economics Research). The department makes use of diverse and state-of–the-art research facilities (multi-use lab spaces, online data collection, mobile computing, psycho-physiological and neurocognitive equipment) and has access to a dedicated research support staff (lab assistants, programming and technical support). For more information see: http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/about/schools/socialsciences/organization/departments/social-psychology.htm