Page 177 - Cyber Terrorism and Extremism as Threat to Critical Infrastructure Protection

GRAEME BALLARD: IF THE FACE FITS: IS IT POSSIBLE FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO ACCURATELY PREDICT THREATS TO
PROTECT CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE?

4 Cognitive Behaviour

Section 2.0 began with the statement that the psychological, sociological and philosophical
literature all separate the basis of human behaviour into biological, cognitive and, sometimes,
conative components Franken, 1988; Engel et al, 1993). In order to more appropriately (and
ambitiously) develop Gjoreski et al.’s biological-based tool, discussed above, my consortium
felt that the cognitive and conative components of behaviour should be actively considered
– in order to be truly useful in protecting critical infrastructure. Although the exact nature of
these concepts is beyond the scope of this article, a basic understanding of how they might
operate together, to modify behaviour, is useful. The following example is a tested model from
consumer behaviour, relating to the decision-making process regarding travel. Figure 4 shows
how multiple psychological factors interact to process information to influence behaviour. A
unique model(s) would need to be developed for nuclear power stations, but a suitable version
has yet to be adequately identified by my consortium. This example is to illustrate a potential
process – what a model might look like.

The components of attitudes (beliefs, feelings and predispositions) form the central portion
of the model in Figure 4. Information about an attitude object is presented to the individual,
which is processed to form an overall attitude about the object (in this case, travel to a par-
ticular destination). These include social factors, such as the attitudes of reference groups or
5
the relative threat of the object to the individual’s concept of self . The attitude will then be
combined, again, with social factors to form a preference or intention to travel to a certain
destination or to use a particular form of transport. This preference, or intention, ultimately
leads to behaviour, i.e. purchasing or making travel arrangements.

Figure 4: The components of attitudes (beliefs, feelings and predispositions) form the central
portion of the model

5 NB It is not clear how much weight this influence has on each component, or on the overall attitude itself, and
is likely highly individual in nature.
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