Some of the best effect of fiction is not simply presenting insightful new scenarios, but presenting classical scenarios from a different perspective that makes us see them anew.

I'm thinking of all those stories with alien/robot/outsider/etc... who has to adapt to the strange conventions of human life. Though its overdone and repleat with poor examples, it's also the easiest way to grasp ideas like "hey, there is more than just one way of thinking, maybe minds in general will not be like us" and "hey, social interactions are really, really tricky, they just seem easy to us".