TITLE:
Cognitive-Affective and Dynamic Modeling of a Sacrificial Decision: Integration of Emotional Appraisal, Cognitive Task Analysis, and Fuzzy Cognitive Maps
AUTHORS:
Cecilia Jokebed Rea-Castañares, Ana Lilia Laureano-Cruces, Martha Mora-Torres, Ismael Martínez-Bonilla
KEYWORDS:
Cognitive Engineering, Fuzzy Cognitive Maps, Moral Decision Making, Emotional Appraisal, Cognitive Task Analysis, Computational Modeling
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Intelligence Science,
Vol.16 No.3,
July
16,
2026
ABSTRACT: Sacrificial decisions in contexts of high moral conflict are often analyzed through normative frameworks or experimental studies focused on sacrificial dilemmas. However, these approaches do not always allow representing the internal dynamics that connect environmental conditions, causal inferences, moral goals, emotions, and observable action. This article presents a cognitive-affective and dynamic model to analyze voluntary sacrificial behavior in a narrative case: the decision of an agent to surrender to an antagonist despite knowing that they will likely die, under the premise that their death may reduce collective harm. The objective was to construct and evaluate an integrative scheme combining cognitive task analysis as a technique for identifying elements to represent in the behavioral model; affective-moral appraisal structure as a cognitive representation of emotions in the modeled behavior; and finally, fuzzy cognitive maps as a technique for representing the behavioral model knowledge for computational implementation. The methodology included four phases: delimitation of the behavior and decision context; formalization of the mental model into facts, concepts, inferences, values, and action; construction of a causal matrix of seven nodes; and iterative simulation of scenarios with a binary activation function. The results show that in scenarios where active threat, ongoing war, and recognition of an internal causal condition coincide, the system converges toward a stable state composed of three nodes: minimizing deaths, voluntary sacrifice, and weakening the enemy. The discussion proposes that the behavior can be interpreted as an emergent property of the system, not as an impulsive response nor as a purely utilitarian decision. It is concluded that fuzzy cognitive maps offer a useful formal strategy to represent complex moral decision processes, provided their results are interpreted as modeling hypotheses and not as direct empirical validation of human behavior. A corrective modeling refinement is also specified to address possible overactivation of the sacrifice node: the revised simulation distinguishes necessary from sufficient conditions by incorporating a thresholded sigmoidal activation rule for voluntary sacrifice and treating the internal causal condition as an enabling condition rather than as an isolated sufficient cause.