What We’re Reading: Singapore Is Paying People to Read

Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at [email protected] and we just might feature it here. Read receipts We hear it over and over: People aren’t reading anymore. Would more people be motivated to pick up a book if they were being paid to do it? That’s what Singapore is banking on. A new government program rewards citizens with cash for time spent reading, according to a story shared by Contributing Editor Michaela Haas from the Guardian. Now, the fine print: Readers would have to read an awful lot to make money this way — it takes 50 daily 15-minute sessions to earn one Singapore dollar ($0.78 U.S.). But the program might be effective anyway: People like to earn points and work toward a concrete goal. As Ivo Vlaev, a professor of behavioral psychology at the National University of Singapore, tells the Guardian, “One of the interesting findings from behavioral science is that incentives do not always work in proportion to their monetary value.” Michaela says: Singapore is now paying people to read. Experts say the habit might stick. And I’d be a millionaire if reading was rewarded with money. A new focus Here at RTBC, we often feature efforts to literally meet people where they are: stocking kids’ books at laundromats, bringing addiction medicine into primary care, filling community fridges with free food, putting health clinics in schools. And now: offering eye screenings at post offices. In a story that caught Contributing Editor Geetanjali Krishna’s attention, Scroll.In reports on an effort to make basic vision care more accessible in Assam, India. Geetanjali says: A lovely story about a program that is piloting basic eye screening in five post offices in Assam, northeast India. The logic is beautifully simple: People may not travel to a clinic, but they regularly visit the post office. Interestingly, 82 percent of those who were tested and needed spectacles, said they were wearing them for the first time! Given that India has nearly 165,000 post offices, using them as health screening facilities could be huge! What else we’re reading 🏙️ Reclaiming the streets: the architects clawing back Europe’s car-centric spaces — shared by Michaela Haas from the Guardian 🌿 The Unseen Plant That Could Save New York’s Shorelines — shared by Editorial Director Rebecca Worby from Hellgate 🐦 As Millions of Birds Migrate, Residents Are Asked to Turn Off the Lights — shared by Michaela Haas from the New York Times In other news… In July, we published a fascinating story by journalist Anna Patton about the chains of generosity transforming kidney donation. Stanford Impact Labs recently released a short video about the work Anna covered in her story. You can watch the video here.