Singapore this month launched a national campaign aimed at encouraging people to build stronger reading habits. As part of the initiative, participants can earn a small cash reward by logging their reading time on a government website.
The incentive is modest. Readers must complete 50 sessions of at least 15 minutes to earn SG$1, with only one session allowed to be recorded each day. Each completed session earns 20 virtual coins, while 1,000 coins can be exchanged for the dollar payment.
The programme is being run as a pilot until the end of the year, with the National Library Board (NLB) saying new features and improvements will be introduced based on feedback.
The idea comes as concerns grow about shrinking attention spans and declining reading habits, particularly as people spend more time consuming short-form digital content and scrolling through social media.
“While short-form content helps us stay informed, long-form reading strengthens attention, critical thinking and imagination,” the National Library Board’s chief Melissa Tam said in a statement.
“Ultimately, we want to see a nation of readers who are curious, thoughtful, discerning and equipped to navigate an increasingly complex world.”
More than money
The Singapore initiative is less about making reading financially worthwhile and more about using rewards to establish a routine.
Behavioural scientists say even a small incentive can encourage people to begin an activity they already intend to do but repeatedly put off, reports The Guardian.
“One of the interesting findings from behavioural science is that incentives do not always work in proportion to their monetary value,” said Ivo Vlaev, a professor of behavioural psychology at the National University of Singapore.
He said the scheme should not be viewed as conventional payment for someone’s time.
Instead, the reward “may be acting more as a trigger than as a wage”.
Logging reading sessions and collecting points provides an immediate indication that the behaviour has been recognised and that participants are progressing towards a goal. Once people begin reading, the enjoyment of the activity itself could eventually take over, Vlaev said.
Jonathan Haidt, a psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation, said financial incentives could be particularly useful for young people.
“all kids respond to rewards to some degree”
For children, he said, the scheme is “likely to have some beneficial effect in setting up a habit of reading”.
But rewards can also have a downside. If readers begin to associate books mainly with financial incentives, they may lose interest once the payments disappear.
“If participants find reading “pleasurable in itself”, then the habit may stick,” Haidt said.
However, for some people, the monetary reward “will convey to them that they are reading only for the extrinsic reward”, meaning reading could stop when the money does.
Lory Barile, associate professor in economics at the University of Warwick, said research indicates that repeating a behaviour consistently can help turn it into an automatic habit.
“There is good evidence that repeating a behaviour consistently can help it become more automatic over time”.
But she said the bigger question is whether the habit continues after the incentive is removed.
The power of gamification
The financial reward is only one part of Singapore’s strategy.
The programme also uses points, daily targets and progress tracking to turn reading into a game-like activity.
Patrick Taylor, director of education at the Behavioural Insights Team, said this could prove more important than the cash itself.
“Having a manageable 15-minute daily goal, built around existing routines like commuting or bedtime, with streaks and tracking to keep progress visible”
He said these elements could help make reading easier to incorporate into everyday life.
Loh Chin Ee of Singapore’s National Institute of Education, who researches reading habits, also sees the 15-minute target as a practical starting point, reports CNN.
“For somebody who reads a lot, 15 minutes might feel very short, but I think it is a nice, sweet spot,” Loh told CNN.
“What has happened is that many people still do read when you talk about reading words on a screen. But the kind of deep reading, spending time and being committed to reading may occur less often.”
The approach is particularly aimed at people who want to read but struggle to get started.
Katy Milkman, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, said such an incentive could help people who have already lost the habit.
“If people are already intrinsically motivated to read, this may be enough to tip them over the edge to read a bit more,”
Vlaev said a small immediate reward could similarly help people turn an intention into action.
“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”.
Reading beyond school
Singapore already performs strongly in international reading assessments, but there are concerns about whether young people continue reading for pleasure as academic pressures increase.
A Singapore risk analyst, Isaac Neo, 32, said students can gradually lose their interest in leisure reading as they move into secondary school and face major examinations.
“I think during your teenage years, it can be quite stressful,” Isaac Neo, 32, said.
“There are a lot of big examinations and you start to read only for what you’re being tested on. And then, slowly you lose the habit of reading for leisure.”
Neo realised that he had not read a book for years after starting his career, despite regularly reading technical reports and news for work. He co-founded the Modern Men’s Book Club in 2025.
“I’ve spoken to quite a few people who say that’s their motivation: to pick up reading again as a habit because they haven’t done it for so long,” he said.
Members of the club have told him they had not read books for years and had begun exploring genres they would not previously have considered.
Can rewards create lifelong readers?
Singapore’s experiment has also raised a broader question: can something traditionally associated with pleasure be successfully encouraged through financial rewards?
Some argue that people should read because they enjoy it, rather than because they are paid.
Others believe that in an era of constant digital distraction, any incentive that gets people reading is worth testing.
“I would rather see people reading and miss their train stop or their bus stop than hear the constant sounds of TikTok and AI-generated Chinese dramas being blasted on the train,” said Charmaine Lim, a 28-year-old book and lifestyle content creator in Singapore.
Ashley Chia, who runs a book club, said the ultimate measure of success should go beyond the number of minutes people spend reading.
“I like the whole idea of making reading habitual and giving people a small nudge to begin,” she said.
“If Singapore wants to build a reading culture, perhaps success isn’t only that people read for 15 minutes a day, it’s also that we become more curious readers. We read outside what is immediately available to us, or immediately useful to us.”
There are also concerns that financial rewards could undermine intrinsic motivation.
“Monetary rewards work well for people who are already somewhat interested in reading, but for those with no existing interest at all, cash incentives may be a hard sell for cultivating a lasting, intrinsic motivation to read,” said Charissa Ng, principal clinical psychologist at Putra Star Care in Singapore.
Could the model work elsewhere?
The UK already uses non-financial incentives to encourage reading and learning. Primary school children, for example, can receive certificates for achievements, while the Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge rewards young readers with badges and certificates.
Barile said a Singapore-style programme could be tested alongside symbolic rewards to determine which approaches have a lasting effect.
A pilot could compare cash payments with certificates, badges, gamification, goal-setting and progress tracking.
Taylor also supports testing different approaches rather than assuming one incentive will work for everyone.
Haidt has suggested several possible models: some children could receive cash, others could receive free books of their choice, while another group could collect points without receiving money. A separate control group could simply be observed without being given any incentive.
The aim would be to determine not only whether people read more while rewards are available, but whether they continue reading after the incentives disappear.
Singapore is also linking its reading campaign to charity. Participants can contribute their reading minutes towards a target of 7.5 million minutes, with the initiative aiming to raise up to SG$150,000 this year.
The experiment ultimately raises a simple question, can a small reward help people rediscover an old habit in an age dominated by instant digital entertainment?
For now, Singapore is testing whether a little money, a daily 15-minute target and some gamification can persuade people to turn off their screens and turn a page.
