PhD student HSRI: Mitchell Matthijssen

Can you tell us something about you? [E.g., What did you study? At which departments will you conduct your PhD studies? What is, briefly said, the topic of you PhD project?]

 I am Mitchell Matthijssen, 26 years old, live in Tilburg, and in my spare time I enjoy cycling. I did both my Bachelor in Sociology and my Research Master in Social and Behavioral Sciences with a specialization in Sociology at Tilburg University. My PhD project is about understanding vaccine hesitancy, the refusal and delay of vaccines despite the availability of vaccines, in the Netherlands. In this project, we focus on irregular cases (e.g. individuals who favor vaccination despite having traits and identities that make them pone to oppose vaccination (positive deviants) and individuals who oppose vaccination despite having traits and identities that make them prone to favor vaccination (negative deviants). By focusing on irregular cases, we hope to get a better understanding on what makes people prone to vaccine hesitancy.

Did cross-departmental research play a role during your bachelor’s/master’s studies? To which extent?

 In my regular bachelor program, cross-departmental research did not play a role. However, I participated in the Honors Program in Tilburg where I was in a cross-departmental environment since it involved students from all disciplines of Tilburg University. Here I saw for the first time the benefits of cross-departmental research because it showed me that by combining multiple perspectives you can come to new and novel explanations. My Research Master in Tilburg was interdisciplinary whereby I followed courses on Sociology, Social Psychology, Organization Studies, and Methods & Statistics. Hereby we approached topics from different angles, which increased my appetite for multi-disciplinary research. 

What excited you about this multidisciplinary project you applied for?

 When I started applying for PhD position, I was searching for PhD projects that have an added benefit for society. What excited me about this project was that I could work on a highly relevant topic for society (i.e. why do people decide to get vaccinated or not) and that it offers me opportunities to collaborate with different parties (e.g. the National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM), GGD) to make also an impact with my research. Furthermore, the multi-disciplinary, multi-method design also attracted me because it offers me the opportunity to expand the skills that I learned during my Bachelor and Research Master.

Why is cross-departmental research important for your PhD project? What does it add to the project?

Deciding to get yourself or your child vaccinated is influenced by a multitude of factors both on a societal level as on an individual level. The benefit of cross-departmental research is that we combine multiple perspectives (i.e. Sociological, Social Psychological, and Health Science) to understand vaccine hesitancy. Whereas the sociological perspective provides us insights in how societal factors (e.g. religion) influence people’s attitudes towards vaccines, the social psychological perspective provides us insights in how people make decisions and which factors influence the decision making process (e.g. risk perceptions). Furthermore, the cross-departmental approach us also the opportunity to test whether the decision making process differs for sociological interesting groups (e.g. religious people, spiritual people, conspiracy believers). 

What do you like about cross-departmental research?

What I like most about cross-departmental research is its versatility and that discussions often go into directions that you would not expect. It also makes me more critical about what I read and present because what is self-evident in one discipline (e.g. Social Psychology) does not necessary be self-evident in another discipline (e.g. Sociology). In addition, it also shows me how different department operate and give me more opportunities to broaden my network and horizon, which I see as an additional benefit for my later career. Furthermore, cross-departmental research offers me the opportunity to develop myself into the whole field of social sciences instead of only one discipline. For example, in my project we also incorporate an Evolutionary Psychological perspective, which I probably would not have considered when I would do a PhD in only Sociology.