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Could the solution to the reading crisis lie in paying people to put down their phones and pick up a book? That’s what one government, at least, is resorting to: this month, Singapore launched a scheme promising actual cash to citizens as a reward for logging reading time on a government website.
It’s unlikely to make you megabucks – you have to rack up 50 reading sessions of at least 15 minutes to earn one Singapore dollar (£0.59), with only one logged session allowed per day. But behavioural scientists and psychologists told the Guardian such a scheme could still help boost a habit in precipitous decline.
Jonathan Haidt, a psychologist and the author of the bestselling book The Anxious Generation, about the impact of social media on young people’s mental health, says that some children are highly motivated by money, and “all kids respond to rewards to some degree” – so for young people, the scheme is “likely to have some beneficial effect in setting up a habit of reading”. Lory Barile, associate professor in economics at the University of Warwick, adds that “there is good evidence that repeating a behaviour consistently can help it become more automatic over time”.
If participants find reading “pleasurable in itself”, then the habit may stick, says Haidt. Yet, for some, the monetary reward “will convey to them that they are reading only for the extrinsic reward”, and so when the money stops, the reading will, too. Barile agrees that the most interesting question isn’t whether people read more while they’re being rewarded, but whether the scheme “helps people establish a reading habit that persists once the reward is no longer present”.
While the earning potential of the Singapore scheme is low, this doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t be effective, says Ivo Vlaev, a professor of behavioural psychology at the National University of Singapore. “One of the interesting findings from behavioural science is that incentives do not always work in proportion to their monetary value.”
The scheme shouldn’t be thought of as “paying people to read” in a conventional economic sense – a dollar every few weeks is obviously not enough to compensate participants for the time they’ve invested. Instead, the payment “may be acting more as a trigger than as a wage”, says Vlaev. Logging reading time and accumulating points means participants “receive an immediate signal that the behaviour has been recognised, your streak continues and you make progress towards a goal”. And once someone has actually started reading, “the intrinsic rewards of the activity can take over”, he adds.
We all know reading has long-term benefits, but a key element of the Singapore scheme hinges on introducing a short-term reward for the activity, mimicking the immediate dopamine hit of scrolling. In fact, the “gamified” element may be “smarter” than the financial reward offered, says Patrick Taylor, director of education at the Behavioural Insights Team (which originated in David Cameron’s Cabinet Office, also known as the “nudge unit”). “Having a manageable 15-minute daily goal, built around existing routines like commuting or bedtime, with streaks and tracking to keep progress visible” are the aspects that could make the scheme a success, he says.
Such a scheme may be particularly effective for lapsed readers. “If people are already intrinsically motivated to read, this may be enough to tip them over the edge to read a bit more,” says Katy Milkman, a professor at Wharton business school, University of Pennsylvania. Vlaev adds that “if somebody already intends to read but repeatedly fails to get started, a tiny immediate reward can help bridge the gap between intention and action”.
In the UK, non-monetary reward schemes for reading and other types of learning have long been in place, such as the primary school rainbow certificate scheme, through which “the value comes primarily from recognition and a sense of achievement”, says Barile. The Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge allows children to receive badges and certificates for reading, too.
A UK pilot of the Singapore-style scheme could therefore “compare small financial rewards with symbolic rewards such as certificates or badges, as well as gamification, goal-setting and progress feedback”, says Barile. Others agree that such schemes should be run as trials, “so we find out what works and why”, says Taylor. Haidt suggests a few variations to test: some children could be randomly assigned to be paid in cash, others could be paid in free books of their choice (“so that they see books as a reward, not money as a reward for reading”), and others “are simply urged to read to get points in a competition, no money”. A fourth group “would be a true control, nothing is done, other than measuring how many books they read”.
But the question remains: should governments financially reward what has been traditionally considered something you do for fun? Milkman sees it differently: “We subsidise, and even require, many other forms of education.” So why not reward reading, too?
