Try not to fall in love with a pocket pair. Here's a few stats that might help you in that goal.
First of all you need to know that you only hit a set on the flop like 1 out of 8 times. So you really want to consider the number of people in the pot. So your most important bet will be your pre-flop bet.
I try to keep with the coin flip rule. Basically I will not play a pair unless I have at least 50% chance to win. I can play any heads up pair with at least 50% chance, but if there is more than 1 person in the pot, it's not so clear cut.
As you can see if I have JJ against 1 person I have pretty good odds at a 78% win chance. But that same JJ drops to a 49% chance to win in a 4 way pot.
After that I consider the pot odds, scare cards, texture, and everyone's table image (including mine).