And in several Asian countries, companies that want to do business with the government electronically must conform to the standard.

ECONOMIST: Putting it all together

In such cases, people who work in the office will conform to the social standard and work many more hours.

WSJ: Ask Ariely: The Etiquette of Taking a Train Seat

Cupertino's decision means that many federal agencies might not be able to buy those products, since 95 percent of its electronics purchasing must conform to the EPEAT standard.

ENGADGET: Apple pulls out of EPEAT green registration, may not be able to sell computers to federal agencies

The Wi-Fi standard is itself technically still a draft, so manufacturers could find their cutting-edge products too ahead of the curve if their hardware doesn't conform to the industry standard.

WSJ: Higher-Speed Wi-Fi? Not So Fast

To conform to the Labrador breed standard, males should weigh between 65 to 80 pounds, and females 55 to 70 pounds.

WSJ: Everybody Loves Labradors, So Why Are They Underdogs?

The CPI was first created in 1996 to conform to the requirement for a standard, European-wide, measure of inflation for the purposes of European monetary union.

BBC: New inflation measure proposed