A Cognitive Framing for Norm Change

Norms are within minds and out of minds; they work thanks to their mental im- plementations but also thanks to their externalized supports, processing, diffusion, and be- havioral messages. This is the normal and normative working of Ns. Ns is not simply a be- havioral and collective fact, 'normality' or an institution; but they necessarily are mental artifacts. Ns change follows the same circuit. In principle there are two (interconnected) loci of change with their forces: mental transformations vs. external, interactive ones. Ns change is a circular process based on a loop between 'emergence' and 'immergence'; that is, changes in behaviors presuppose some change in minds, while behaviors causal efficacy is due to their aggregated macro-result: acts that organize in stable choreographies and regu- larities build (new) Ns in the minds of the actors. More precisely the problem is: which are the crucial mental representations supporting an N conform (or deviating) behavior? And which kinds of 'mutations' in those mental representations produce a change in behavior? I will focus my analysis on Social Norms, in a broad sense.