Free Money Helps People Quit Smoking Easier, According To A Study

Free Money Helps People Quit Smoking Easier, According To A Study
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The easiest approach to making people quit smoking is to give them free money, a new research indicates. The study was released Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine and contrasted the efficacy of different programs in helping people quit smoking.

Over 6,000 people participated in this research. Scientists divided the participants into a number of groups.

Some were given counseling on smoking cessation and offered access to a motivational messaging system. Some of them also benefited from free smoking cessation support, such as nicotine patches. One more group got that, along with e-cigarettes for free.

On the other hand, the remaining two groups were given all that stuff plus $600 free money.

People who obtain free money quit smoking easier than others

The two groups to whom cash was given by the researcher showed a substantial improvement in their smoking cessation processes’ success rate. Interestingly, they presented twice as many chances of really quit smoking as the group which received e-cigarettes.

“People do respond to monetary rewards,” stressed Dr. Andrew Pipe, a quit smoking researcher from the Ottawa Heart Institute and the University of Ottawa.

The majority of people who smoke already know this is a bad habit for their health, therefore, warning them about the health threats smoking implies will never work to help them quit smoking, the researchers agree. “Approaches to scare smokers are not really necessary. What smokers value are the offers of help,” said Andrew Pipe.

According to scientists, all the studies which implied free money rewards to stimulate participants to perform various tasks have always been successful.

However, only about 3% out of those who were stimulated with money to quit smoking have indeed given up this bad habit. Researchers blamed the physical addiction to nicotine for this behavior. However, the study is interesting in showing that people can be stimulated with free money to perform various tasks.


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Jeffrey likes to write about health and fitness topics, being a champion fitness instructor in the past.

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