I've been known to dangle incentives in front of my kids to
get them to do otherwise unpleasant things (see: Let's Make a Deal ).
So if they should ever make the foolhardy decision to smoke (as I did), I'll be
right there, cash in hand, offering whatever it takes to get them to stop.
According to one study, that amount is $750.
A recent study at General Electric found that 15 percent of
workers who were paid up to $750 to quit smoking were still cigarette-free one
year later. That's three times as many as in the group who didn't receive the
bonus.
“This kind of reward system provides them with direct,
positive feedback in the present,” not just delayed, intangible health
benefits, said Dr. Kevin Volpp, the lead researcher of the study.
This is precisely why bribing our kids works: eating
their vegetables so they grow big and strong is too broad a concept for small
kids (or grown adults, apparently). Eating their vegetables so they can have
dessert gives them immediate gratification. Just like cash.
Previous studies have attempted to determine if
financial incentives worked, but those including too too small a financial
incentive, sometimes as low as $10.
Dan Anzalone, who participated in the study and is still
tobacco-free three years later, said $750 was "a good incentive."
“I was getting rewarded for something that I should be
doing anyway,” said Anzalone, 54. “You’d be surprised at what that little
incentive does.”
Results of the study, which started in 2005, were
published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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