Charlie Bucket did not have a whole lot but he had what mattered most, people who cared about him. Living with a working mom (his dad is deceased in the 1971 movie but alive in the 2005 version) and four bed-ridden grandparents in a small dilapidated shack may not have been glamorous, but together they managed to get enough to eat, even if it was runny cabbage soup.

The Have and Have Nots

Through it all, Charlie kept his chin up, went to school, and worked a newspaper route to earn some money for his family. Unlike the Augustus Gloops, Mike Teavees, Verruca Salts, and Violet Beauregardes of the world, he earned his keep and he was grateful.

That’s what made the Golden Ticket contest that much more delicious. The chance to tour Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory was a dream come true for any kid, never mind one who had little to eat. The lifetime supply of chocolate made the reward even sweeter.

Charlie’s family went out of their way to scrimp and save to buy the boy a chocolate bar for his birthday. Unfortunately, when he opened the Wonka Bar there was no Golden Ticket inside. That didn’t stop Charlie from appreciating the gift. Even though he could have kept it for himself, he broke the chocolate into pieces to share with his family.

The Power of Shared Experiences

Charlie would have enjoyed the chocolate no matter what, but knowing his family enjoyed it too probably made it taste better. Believe it or not, that’s a real phenomenon.

Erica Boothby is a Yale social psychologist, and she knows more than anyone what it means to connect with other people. In particular, she knows that sharing experiences makes them more impactful than if they happened in isolation. To prove the point, Boothby performed two sets of experiments. Yale students were recruited for the study and were asked for their opinions on how good chocolate tasted. Now that’s the kind of experiment I can get behind!

In one study, one participant tasted a piece of chocolate while another person ate the chocolate with them. In the other, they ate the chocolate while the other person did something else. The study participants thought they were eating different types of chocolate, but during each set of experiments, the chocolate was exactly the same. When the chocolate tasted good, the study participant always rated the chocolate better when they ate it with someone else. When the chocolate tasted bad, they rated it worse. Simply put, being with someone else enhances the experience, whether it’s good or bad.

Sharing in Your Own Life

You don’t have to have someone at your hip to make every experience the best it can be. Sharing those experiences after the fact can give them a boost too.

Psychologist Nathaniel Lambert looked at the impact of maintaining a gratitude journal and sharing it with other people. While writing down and remembering a positive experience can bring about positive feelings, those feelings are amplified when the content of those journals are shared with other people. It is even more impactful when the person on the receiving end of those thoughts and stories is supportive. When we connect with other people, life is simply better.

What does this mean? It means that you should do what you can to reach out to others. Be social when you can. Listen to other people when they have stories to share. Be kind, even when other people may not be. Be like Charlie Bucket. Chocolate, anyone?

 

Boothby EJ, Clark MS, Bargh JA. Shared Experiences Are Amplified. Psychological Science. 2014;25(12):2209-2216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614551162

Lambert NM, Gwinn AM, Baumeister RF, et al. A boost of positive affect: The perks of sharing positive experiences. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. 2013;30(1):24-43. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407512449400