This country is paying its people to read. Can it stop brain rot?

Whether it’s while waiting for the train or chilling solo at a cafe, a tiny nation in Southeast Asia is nudging its people toward an increasingly elusive habit: reading.

Singapore this month launched a novel five-year national campaign to nurture reading habits, with incentives including small payments to citizens who log their reading minutes on a government website.

Officials are betting, the gamification strategy – using a points system to track the habit for a modest reward – and a sense of public participation can help to restore a habit being fast replaced by brain rot-inducing doomscrolling.

“While short-form content helps us stay informed, long-form reading strengthens attention, critical thinking and imagination,” the National Library Board’s chief Melissa Tam said in a statement.

“Ultimately, we want to see a nation of readers who are curious, thoughtful, discerning and equipped to navigate an increasingly complex world.”

The scheme won’t make bookworms rich though, with 50 days of reading sessions needed to earn one SG$1 ($0.8). A session of 15 minutes or more earns readers 20 virtual coins, and readers need to collect 1,000 coins to get the dollar payment. Only one session can be logged per day.

The unique program comes at a time when attention spans are shrinking and reading habits are declining worldwide. Educators are struggling to battle “brain rot” –– a perceived decline in our cognitive abilities blamed on consuming too much shallow content online –– and doomscrolling.

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Latest global rankings last week showed reading scores among 15-year-olds in the United States have plunged while Asian nations like Singapore and China are doing remarkably well. The study the highlighted one challenge as higher digital distraction in the classroom.

Gamifying reading and transforming it into a habit is the crux of Singapore’s initiative, said Loh Chin Ee from the country’s National Institute of Education.

“For somebody who reads a lot, 15 minutes might feel very short, but I think it is a nice, sweet spot,” Loh, who researches reading habits, told CNN.

“What has happened is that many people still do read when you talk about reading words on a screen. But the kind of deep reading, spending time and being committed to reading may occur less often.”

While Singapore remains a global standout in reading scores, there are concerns students lose steam in reading when they start preparing for bigger exams as they advance through the grades.

A risk analyst in Singapore who reads a lot of technical reports and news stories for his work believes young students lose the joy of reading when they reach secondary school.

“I think during your teenage years, it can be quite stressful,” Isaac Neo, 32, said.

“There are a lot of big examinations and you start to read only for what you’re being tested on. And then, slowly you lose the habit of reading for leisure.”

When Neo realized he had not picked up a book in years since starting his career, he co-founded the Modern Men’s Book Club in 2025.

“I’ve spoken to quite a few people who say that’s their motivation: to pick up reading again as a habit because they haven’t done it for so long,” he said.

Neo says his book club members tell him they haven’t read a book in ages and that now they’re even veering into genres they wouldn’t have in the past.

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The earn-as-you-read push is in a pilot phase till the end of the year “with new features and enhancements to come based on feedback,” the NLB has said. Readers also can take part in a charity drive which the organization hopes can garner 7.5 million reading minutes to raise up to $118,300 (SG$150,000) this year.

The scheme has sparked debate in the affluent city-state over whether cash can truly cultivate a lifelong love for books. Some critics say people should be reading for the love of reading.

Others say anything that gets people to read in an age of hyper distraction can’t be that bad.

“I would rather see people reading and miss their train stop or their bus stop than hear the constant sounds of TikTok and AI-generated Chinese dramas being blasted on the train,” Charmaine Lim, a 28-year-old book and lifestyle content creator in Singapore told CNN.

Ashley Chia, who runs a book club, believes the definition of success must reflect a bigger chapter.

“I like the whole idea of making reading habitual and giving people a small nudge to begin,” she said.

“If Singapore wants to build a reading culture, perhaps success isn’t only that people read for 15 minutes a day, it’s also that we become more curious readers. We read outside what is immediately available to us, or immediately useful to us.”

No Friday night plans? Try reading with hundreds of strangers

There is, however, a body of research suggesting that monetary incentives can reduce a person’s natural desire to continue a behavior once the reward disappears.

“Monetary rewards work well for people who are already somewhat interested in reading, but for those with no existing interest at all, cash incentives may be a hard sell for cultivating a lasting, intrinsic motivation to read,” said Charissa Ng, principal clinical psychologist at Putra Star Care in Singapore.

Whether small cash rewards can outpace algorithm-driven dopamine remains to be seen. In a country that’s found success with national campaigns – from public cleanliness to encouraging courtesy – a light nudge and a little reward might just be enough to get people to turn the page.

无论是在等火车的时候，还是在咖啡馆里独自放松的时候，东南亚的一个小国正在引导它的人民养成一种越来越难以捉摸的习惯：阅读。

新加坡本月启动了一项为期五年的全国性阅读推广活动，旨在培养阅读习惯。活动奖励措施包括向在政府网站上记录阅读时间的公民支付小额奖金。

官员们认为，游戏化策略（使用积分系统来跟踪用户习惯并给予适度奖励）和公众参与感可以帮助恢复这种正在迅速被导致大脑衰退的“末日滚动”所取代的习惯。

“短篇内容有助于我们了解信息，而长篇阅读则能增强注意力、批判性思维和想象力，”国家图书馆管理局局长谭美玲在一份声明中表示。

“最终，我们希望看到一个充满好奇心、善于思考、有洞察力，并且能够应对日益复杂的世界的读者群体。”

这项计划并不能让书虫们一夜暴富，因为需要连续阅读50天才能赚到1新加坡元（约合0.8美元）。每次阅读15分钟或以上，读者可以获得20个虚拟币，而读者需要积累1000个虚拟币才能兑换成美元。每天只能记录一次阅读。

这项独特的计划推出之际，正值全球注意力持续时间缩短、阅读习惯下降之时。教育工作者正努力对抗“脑腐”——一种被认为由于过度沉迷于网络上肤浅内容而导致的认知能力下降——以及“末日滚动”现象。

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上周公布的最新全球排名显示，美国15岁青少年的阅读成绩大幅下滑，而新加坡和中国等亚洲国家的表现则十分出色。该研究指出，课堂上日益严重的电子产品干扰是造成这一挑战的原因之一。

新加坡国立教育学院的罗振义表示，将阅读游戏化并将其转变为一种习惯是新加坡这项举措的核心。

“对于一个经常读书的人来说，15 分钟可能感觉很短，但我认为这是一个不错的、恰到好处的时间，”研究阅读习惯的洛赫告诉 CNN。

“现在的情况是，很多人仍然会阅读，也就是在屏幕上阅读文字。但是那种深度阅读，即花时间认真阅读，并且全身心投入阅读，可能出现的频率要低得多。”

虽然新加坡的阅读成绩在全球名列前茅，但人们担心，随着年级的升高，学生在准备更重要的考试时，阅读能力会下降。

新加坡一位风险分析师，由于工作需要阅读大量技术报告和新闻报道，认为年轻学生升入中学后就失去了阅读的乐趣。

“我认为青少年时期压力会很大，”32岁的伊萨克·尼奥说道。

“考试很多，你开始只读那些考试要考的内容。然后，慢慢地，你就失去了休闲阅读的习惯。”

当尼奥意识到自从开始职业生涯以来，他已经好几年没有读过书了，于是他在 2025 年与人共同创立了现代男士读书俱乐部。

他说：“我跟不少人聊过，他们都说这是他们的动力：重新养成阅读的习惯，因为他们已经很久没有读书了。”

尼奥说，他的读书俱乐部成员告诉他，他们已经很久没有读过书了，现在他们甚至开始涉猎过去从未接触过的题材。

Amrita Chandradas/《华盛顿邮报》/Getty Images

新加坡国家图书馆管理局（NLB）表示，这项“边读边赚”活动目前处于试点阶段，将持续到年底，“并会根据反馈意见推出新功能和改进措施”。读者还可以参与一项慈善活动，NLB希望今年能累计750万分钟的阅读时间，从而筹集高达11.83万新元（约合15万新加坡元）的善款。

这项计划在这个富裕的城邦国家引发了关于现金是否真的能培养终身阅读兴趣的辩论。一些批评人士认为，人们应该出于对阅读的热爱而阅读。

另一些人则认为，在这样一个注意力高度分散的时代，任何能让人们阅读的东西都不会太糟糕。

“我宁愿看到人们看书而错过火车或公交车站，也不愿听到火车上不断播放的TikTok和人工智能生成的中国电视剧的声音，”新加坡28岁的书籍和生活方式内容创作者Charmaine Lim告诉CNN。

经营读书俱乐部的 Ashley Chia 认为，成功的定义必须反映出一个更宏大的主题。

“我喜欢让阅读成为一种习惯，并给予人们一点鼓励去开始阅读的想法，”她说。

“如果新加坡想要建立阅读文化，或许成功不仅仅在于人们每天阅读15分钟，还在于我们成为更具好奇心的读者。我们阅读的内容不应局限于我们触手可及或对我们有用的事物。”

周五晚上没安排？试试和几百个陌生人一起读书吧！

然而，有大量研究表明，金钱激励可以降低人们在奖励消失后继续某种行为的自然欲望。

“金钱奖励对那些已经对阅读有些兴趣的人来说效果很好，但对于那些完全没有兴趣的人来说，现金奖励可能很难培养出持久的、内在的阅读动力，”新加坡 Putra Star Care 的首席临床心理学家 Charissa Ng 说。

小额现金奖励能否超越算法驱动的多巴胺效应，还有待观察。在一个通过全国性运动（从公共清洁到鼓励礼貌行为）取得成功的国家，轻轻的推动和一点奖励或许就足以促使人们改变主意。