How Shared Schemas Emerge: A Procedural Model of Social Feedback and Reputational Dynamics

This paper introduces a procedural model that formalizes the emergence and stabilization of shared cultural schemas through decentralized social feedback, reputation-seeking, and imitation. Addressing a core gap in sociological theory, we specify the micro-level mechanisms by which individual cognitive interpretations—operating through both automatic and deliberative adaptation—converge into collective behavioral patterns. These processes give rise to emergent symbolic order and stabilized social norms. The model demonstrates how decentralized feedback loops generate shared norms and interpretive frameworks, providing a foundation for studying the bottom-up emergence of social structures. Illustrated through the case of the neurodiversity paradigm shift, this framework offers a precise, dynamic account of how schemas and actions co-evolve, highlighting the central role of social feedback in cultural formation. Our contribution advances cumulative theory-building by bridging cognitive sociology with macro-level cultural phenomena and lays the groundwork for future research on power dynamics and contested meanings.