The English expression “put your money where your mouth is” could be more accurate than ever when it comes to quitting smoking . A recent study published in the journal The New England Journal of Medicine shows that monetary incentives have been shown to be more effective than nicotine patches and cognitive behavioural therapy as a form of anti-smoking treatment.

Quitting smoking through reward

The starting point of the strategy for monetary incentives has the reward system of our brain as its starting point. The hypothesis is as follows: if you are money wise, you will have more reason to keep your promise to stay away from tobacco and you will be less likely to postpone your “last cigarette” indefinitely. In other words, a gambling reward system may strengthen your willpower to a degree that neither chemical substitutes nor specific cognitive-behavioral therapies can. Quitting smoking would thus become a matter of profit and loss.

But such mercantilist logic may seem perverse if it is based only on incentives other than those provided by a healthier lifestyle. What happens when the economic incentives stop? Do smokers pounce on cigarette packs again? Fortunately, it appears that they do not. The betting system proved effective even six months after researchers stopped rewarding ex-smokers financially for not trying tobacco.

How was the research conducted?

A total of 2538 active smokers were used as a sample for the study. From this set of smokers, these people were divided into four groups depending on the type of monetary incentive-based program in which they would participate. These four programs were, in summary (names are invented):

  • Simple program . Quitting smoking for a series of days is rewarded by the time spent away from tobacco. The researchers analyzed the volunteers saliva at three different times after they started the program: 14 days after, 30 days after, and 6 months after. A sum of money could be obtained from each of these reviews, the maximum being $800.
  • Simple program with a deposit . This program was similar to the previous one, but the volunteers had to start by leaving $150 as a deposit. This money could only be recovered by going 6 months without smoking.
  • Cooperative program . Each participant was assigned to a small group of six people. Individuals in each group earned money based on the number of people in their team who quit smoking.

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  • Getting the booty . Teams of six members were formed in which each person had to leave a deposit of $150. The people who successfully quit smoking were given equal shares of the bails.

Volunteers who refused to participate in their assigned program were given the opportunity to quit using traditional methods.

Results

All four programs were shown to be more effective than traditional methods of quitting smoking. However, the programs that achieved the best results were also the least popular, that is, those that fewer people were willing to start. The latter programs were the two that required a deposit: although only 14% of those assigned started them, 52% of the participants went 6 months without smoking, while this percentage of effectiveness dropped to 17% in the alternatives based only on a reward.

Of course, not everyone has access to the necessary tools to do saliva analysis. However, if you are thinking of quitting smoking it is always good to keep in mind that, behind all the justifications one puts forward for smoking the last cigarette, there is a reward system that you should be able to put between your teeth.