On September 6, Singapore began compensating its citizens for reading.
As The Guardian reported, this initiative marks the city-state’s latest effort to curb doomscrolling and shield young people from the downsides of social media. The National Library Board (NLB)—the driving force behind the plan—hopes its “gamification strategy” will boost focus, sharpen critical thinking and nurture the imagination of Singaporeans. And, naturally, it aims to ignite a nationwide book club.
The ReadSG pilot program is slated to run for five years. Here’s how the plan operates, per The Guardian’s Mark Saunokonoko:
Under the scheme, readers accumulate points that can be exchanged for a few cents. Participants must log 50 daily reading sessions on a government portal to earn S$1 (about 80c). A session of 15 minutes or longer is worth 20 virtual coins, with 1,000 coins required to cash out a dollar. Only one reading session is allowed per day.
Not exactly windfall sums, but the idea is clear.
Singapore has previously used incentives to promote healthy eating and exercise, with evident success. NLB leaders have already compared this program to the widely successful 10,000-step challenge, which jumped from Japan to a Fitbit-ready habit in many countries in recent years.
Yet the question remains: will this pennies-for-pages approach cultivate a genuine fondness for reading in the population? Social scientists are divided. Evidence suggests that a short-term reward—not delivering meaningful payoffs—struggles to sustain a lasting habit.
But if the reward taps into the same dopamine-like response that scrolling often triggers, the program could reduce time spent on social media—a net positive.
Katy Milkman, a professor at Penn’s Wharton School, told The Guardian that the scheme might be especially beneficial for disengaged or infrequent readers.
“If people are already intrinsically motivated to read,” Milkman said, “this could be enough to nudge them to read a bit more.” If trends like Goodreads’ lists are any indication, that seems a plausible bet.
And if both personal money and a sense of achievement fail to spark motivation, the NLB offers one more appeal: altruism. A parallel program lets readers donate the money they’ve accumulated from sessions to selected charities.
Singapore hopes to enlist 150,000 participants in the challenge by September 2027. Citizens? Your stacks are calling.
