Since conflict can be uncomfortable, people tend to avoid it and thus seek out those who agree with them. An example is found in the business world, where conforming to expectations, or being a team player, is valued. It is seen as evidence of company loyalty and promoting business efficacy. Internalizing the positive messages or wisdom of one's religion, teachers, and peers can influence and promote pro-social behaviors such as altruism, tolerance, and care giving. Following a positive role model is a healthy form of conformity, which can help be a protective factor against negative examples.
Negative conformity can have disastrous consequences.
For committees, conformity can result in groupthink, where members agree with each other to the point of an illusion of invulnerability. In more extreme cases, negative conformity generates anti-social behavior, like that seen in Nazi Germany, where people committed unspeakable acts they ordinarily would not do in order to remain accepted in society. Taboo serves both descriptive and prohibitive functions within a culture. That which is taboo is forbidden. A taboo can surround an object, action, person, or idea.