🎁 Can people quit smoking if you pay them?
Paying people to quit sounds cold, but it has been studied seriously — because a reward brings the distant future a little closer.
The idea of attaching a cash reward to quitting sounds a little cold.
Some may feel that something you should give up for your health shouldn't be moved by money. And yet financial incentives have been taken seriously in cessation research.
Quitting pays off enormously in the future.
Health comes back. So does money, and time.
But in the moment you want to smoke, that future is far away.
The cigarette in front of you is closer.
A reward brings that distant future a little closer.
"Someday you'll be healthier" is weak on some days.