The salting in effect caused by tetraalkylammonium bromides can be explained by means of an approach grounded on the notion that the process of cavity creation plays the fundamental role in determining the solubility of small hydrocarbons in water and aqueous solutions of tetraalkylammonium bromides. Performing classic scaled particle theory calculations with reliable values for the effective diameter of the various ions, the magnitude of the reversible work of cavity creation in all the aqueous solutions 1 M of tetraalkylammonium bromides proves to be smaller than in pure water. This should be the cause of the salting in effect of such salts. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.