Citizens' Opinion (in Finnish) is a survey panel focusing on society and politics. Members of the panel participate in different online surveys a few times each year. The panel is administered by Åbo Akademi University's Social Science Research Institute and is part of the Finnish Research Infrastructure for Public Opinion (FIRIPO) funded by the Academy of Finland. The recruiting of members for the panel began in 2019, and the panel currently has thousands of participants. The Citizens' Opinion panel offers possibilities to track developments in public opinion over time and makes it possible to react swiftly to current events and launch quick surveys that examine public opinion with a representative sample.
The survey charted Finnish views on vaccines and mandatory vaccination in the spring of 2021. The data were collected as part of the citizen panel project, which is part of the Finnish Research Infrastructure for Public Opinion (FIRIPO).
All respondents read an introductory text before starting the survey. The text summarised the situation regarding mandatory vaccinations in the context of the coronavirus pandemic (vaccination was not compulsory for anyone at the time of the survey) and presented the respondents with a fictional scenario where a different pandemic had broken out and a vaccine that had been tested according to the usual vaccine development and testing process and had been deemed safe and effective was widely available and used to combat the disease. The respondents were randomly divided into seven groups. Respondents belonging to the control group continued to the survey questions after reading the introductory text. The six other groups were presented varying additional information. The respondents in the six groups were told that either 70% or 90% vaccine coverage in the population would stop the spread of the new infectious disease, and they were given different reasons for implementing compulsory vaccination in the fictional pandemic situation. The different reasons included safeguarding economic stability, safeguarding the capacity of the health care system, and citizens' right to life and health.
The survey examined the respondents' views on mandatory vaccination and vaccines in the context of the fictional situation described in the introduction. Questions charted how accepting the respondents would be towards mandatory vaccination, whether they would get vaccinated regardless of whether it was mandatory, and whether they thought that vaccines were safe and a good way to fight against different infectious diseases. Additionally, the respondents were asked whether they thought people could be generally trusted and whether they trusted various institutions and bodies, such as the Finnish government, universities and research institutes, and social media. The respondents' perceptions of their own health, their willingness to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and their views on Finns' general willingness to get vaccinated against COVID-19 were also surveyed.
Background variables included the respondent's gender, mother tongue, survey language (Finnish or Swedish), age group, level of education, NUTS3 region of residence and statistical grouping of municipalities, children aged under 18 living in the household, and political interest.
The data were collected using the Qualtrics platform. Most members of the citizen panel were recruited through probability sampling. Some members were recruited e.g. through social media. The sample for this study was stratified based on level of education (basic education, upper secondary education, higher (tertiary) education). The invitation to respond to the survey was sent to 1,721 panel members.