There is a branch of psychology called social constructionism that studies this exact topic.
"A major focus of social constructionism is to uncover the ways in which individuals and groups participate in the creation of their perceived social reality. It involves looking at the ways social phenomena are created, institutionalized, and made into tradition by humans. Socially constructed reality is seen as an ongoing, dynamic process; reality is reproduced by people acting on their interpretations and their knowledge of it." - Wikipedia
I just heard about this a few days ago actually and I haven't delved in to it yet but from what I've gathered there's a fairly accessable book on this topic by Ian hacking called 'The Social Construction of What?'
It's an interesting topic to think about but it also has a lot of interesting applications. Once you see the world and the rules of society as constructed you begin to see them as inconvenient barriers rather than rules, and barriers deserve to be knocked down
