Of course, although I don’t know when it started, but we’re always questioning and evaluating them (or we should be).
I’ll use the cheating spouse thread as an example. When I was in high school and didn’t understand much about relationships, I was under the impression that one could simply do whatever they wanted as long as thry didn’t physically hurt anyone. I didn’t quite place physical pain on the same plateau as emotional pain.
So I got in some relationships thoughout my short life, some went well, some didn’t, but they ended amicably for the most part. But it wasn’t until I really hurt a woman emotionally that I saw the pain that is possible to cause someone, without even laying a hand on them. It was almost like I wasn’t aware I could do that to someone. The crying, the sinking into depression, and that feeling of thinking you really need someone that leaves you can be equal if not worse than physical pain.
After seeing that, I started to think more about it, because I didn’t quite fully understand, because it had never happened to me (still hasn’t, but that doesn’t mean it can’t). I tried to place myself in various scenarios where I would be in another person’s shoes, and it gave me even more of an understanding.
I pictured myself actually falling in love and being with someone I truly felt was totally compatible with me and someone I knew I could be with for a long time (even though I haven’t felt that way yet), and then I imagined them doing something despicable to me like cheating, or coming home to a note telling me they’re gone or something arbitrary like that.
I could somehow simulate the pain, even though the situation wasn’t real. It wasn’t real pain, and I wasn’t truly hurt, but a sort of sympathetic wave came over me. And I think it’s good to place ourselves in all types of situations to help us understand others problems.