The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) commissioned the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and its spin-off Sapience to conduct a survey to assess Belgian citizens’ reasons for being or not being vaccinated. As such, Sapience assessed people’s attitude towards Covid-19 vaccines in a research that is meant to support the Governments’ effort to proceed with their vaccination plans.
Methodology
The research set up by Sapience, in collaboration with VUB, aimed at revealing how Belgian citizens perceive the vaccination and what really drives their decision to be vaccinated or not. We adapted a survey methodology for this research.
Results
Through this study, we found that:
✅ Most Belgians have a positive attitude towards the vaccination or are willing to get vaccinated (around 85% in total)
✅ Almost 50% of the citizens who have not been vaccinated yet, do not intend to be vaccinated in the future. Only about 33% of the unvaccinated plan to get vaccinated in the future;
✅ Most refusers do so out of fear of side effects and because they do not trust the information provided by the media.
Since the start of the pandemic - says Prof Timothy Desmet, co-CEO at Sapience - we have seen a dichotomy in the population, there is an in-group which is in favor of the vaccines, and an out-group, which is against the vaccine. Through this study, we understand both groups and what drives them much better. After this, we will investigate how unvaccinated people can be convinced to still be vaccinated.
Discover more
Interested to learn more? Watch the animated research video below or explore the press coverage in Euronews (FR) and Bruzz (NL).
