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, imitation, and reflexive adaptation. Addressing a core gap in sociological theory, we specify the micro-level mechanisms by which individual cognitive interpretations, guided by recursive social evaluations, converge into collective behavioral patterns and symbolic order. We argue that socially responsive agents, individuals who observe, care about, and adapt to social responses, continuously adjust their interpretive schemas based on the social validation their actions elicit, leading to the selection and reinforcement of intersubjectively resonant meanings. The model demonstrates how decentralized feedback loops generate shared norms and interpretive frameworks, providing a foundation for understanding 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 rewards in cultural formation. Our contribution advances cumulative theory-building by bridging cognitive sociology with macro-level cultural phenomena, laying groundwork for future research on power dynamics and contested meanings.