Money Incentives Effective in Compelling Smokers to Quit, Study

A new study has revealed that the promise of monetary incentives has proved to be quite effective in helping people to quit smoking.

"Roughly 18 percent of Americans smoke regularly - a percentage that hasn't changed in more than a decade despite the proliferation of new therapies. We desperately need new interventions, and this study shows that financial incentives are likely as good, if not better, than other available interventions," said lead study author, Dr. Scott Halpern.

For the study, the University of Pennsylvania collaborated with CVS Health, one of the largest drug stores in the US. Two thousand five hundred CVS employees took part in the study.

Some smokers were promised a reward if they quit the habit while others were asked to make a deposit of $150. Smokers making the deposit also had the opportunity to win more although if they failed to quit smoking, they would end up losing the deposit amount as well.

People who opted for the reward challenge had the chance to win $800 while those competing for the deposit challenge could get an additional $650 along with the initial deposit after quitting smoking.

The researchers found that although a fewer number of people were ready to take up the deposit challenge, they were more likely to quit than those who directly competed for the reward.

"We found that reward-based programs were more effective overall because many people didn't want to sign up for the programs requiring deposits," Halpern said.

However among the 14 percent of the smokers who were ready to accept either program, the deposit programs turned out to be twice as effective as the reward programs. They were also five times more effective than merely getting simple smoking aids.

Halpern continues, "Nudges are approaches that maintain people's freedom but help them to get where they want to go - a lot like a GPS. For smoking, voluntary cessation programs can have a big effect, if they are well-designed."