Now, let me ask you - Is it OK to chew with your mouth open? Would you wear your pyjamas when picking up the kids from school even if you could see other people’s disapproving looks?

Would you even care? You might get a different answer depending on who you ask.

The point is, we each have our own value systems that we apply when navigating our social worlds.

But where does this awareness of other people’s evaluations come from and when does it first emerge?

Sara Valencia Botto is a Doctoral candidate in Cognition and Development at the Emory Infant and Child Lab at Emory University.