We are all a lot more capable of doing things than we think we are, for better and for worse. The range of actions in which we may engage is much wider, on both sides of our norm, than we can consciously anticipate or entertain. I think often society promotes this idea in a one-sided form- i.e. that we are capable of doing good things, or advancing our skills, or breaking records (time) beyond that which we originally thought. However, I'm sure we also all have done things that we said we'd never do, and these situations were either incomprehensible or unfathomable to us until we find ourselves in them.
We oft deny the unconscious influence of the situation, but it is there. Consequently, our judgment for the actions of others should perhaps be tempered, even calibrated in light of this fact to assign their intentions a little less weight than we normally would, for it could just as well be ourselves that are venturing out into the tails of the behavioral bell curve.