People inherently have grudge and insecurity from strangers. Conformity of social convention may serve as a signal that you accept the norms in a group, showing that you belong to this group.
Especially in a society with impersonal exchange, people interact with strangers on a daily basis. It is a disadvantage for those showing unconditional trust to others. Making mistakes about the trustworthiness of others is not just costly but extremely dangerous, and more so for human beings than for almost any other species. Whether the other is like you (in a broad sense) sometimes serves as a discriminating element.
Failing to conform may reflect one's unwillingness or inability to follow the rules of the social game. The rules of the game is the foundation of trusts, hence conformity can be correlated to some extent with trustworthiness.
This can be confirmed by our insecurity and disconfort with people who we consider as abnormal or different from us.
This can also be confirm be the fact that mirroring the other's actions, gesture and speeches is an easy and quick way to build trust. Actually a lot of dating manuals consider that as a trick to win trust.
Smiles, laughters and other spontaneous friendly expression may have similar functions as conforming behaviors.
Comformity induces trust, which induces trustworthiness, which in turn induces more conformity.
Conformity may also serves as a signal of learning ability. Intelligent individuals easily learn the socially acceptable norms in a group. Have you ever met someone who says something that doesn't follow the flow of the conversation?
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