Quantum-enhanced throughput pathways: Integrating Rodgers' TPM with quantum ethical frameworks for AI-driven cybersecurity

This integrative conceptual review synthesizes psychological, ethical, and quantum-information perspectives to advance Quantum-Enhanced Throughput Modeling (Q-TPM) as a novel framework for ethical decision-making in AI-driven post-quantum cybersecurity. Building on Rodgers' Throughput Model (TPM), Q-TPM embeds quantum-inspired mechanisms, superposition for concurrent ethical pathway activation, entanglement for interdependent moral considerations, and context-sensitive state updating, across six ethical orientations (egoism, deontology, utilitarianism, relativism, virtue ethics, care ethics), enabling dynamic modeling of complex moral tensions in high-stakes cybersecurity scenarios. The review integrates key insights from moral psychology on intuition-deliberation dynamics and principles-consequences trade-offs; foundational AI/cybersecurity ethics paradigms emphasizing fairness, accountability, transparency, and explainability (FATE); and quantum cognition/decision theory, which formalizes non-classical phenomena such as order effects, conjunction fallacies, and preference reversals through Hilbert-space representations. These disparate literatures expose critical fragmentation: psychological models lack scalable AI implementations, ethical frameworks neglect cognitive realism, and quantum technical advances overlook structured moral reasoning. Q-TPM resolves this fragmentation by extending TPM's perception (P)–information (I)–judgment (J)–decision (D) architecture into a quantum-enhanced formalism, where superposed ethical states evolve through recursive feedback to yield contextually robust choices. Simulation-based validation demonstrates pathway interactions and stability under perturbations, with direct applications to AI oversight architectures, ethical auditing protocols, and human–AI cognitive simulations. This positions Q-TPM as a theoretically integrative, practically deployable advancement for post-quantum cybersecurity governance, bridging classical cognitive theory with quantum-inspired computational ethics. • Quantum-Enhanced Throughput Modeling (Q-TPM) integrates psychological, ethical, and quantum-information perspectives into a cohesive framework for ethical decision-making in AI-driven post-quantum cybersecurity. • Building on Rodgers' Throughput Model, Q-TPM incorporates quantum-inspired mechanisms such as: superposition for simultaneous activation of ethical pathways, entanglement for capturing interdependent moral considerations, and context-sensitive state updates. These are applied across six core ethical orientations: egoism, deontology, utilitarianism, relativism, virtue ethics, and care ethics. • The analysis reveals significant fragmentation among moral psychology, AI/cybersecurity ethics, and quantum technical research; Q-TPM bridges these silos by delivering a psychologically grounded, ethically structured, and quantum-enhanced decision architecture. • Through simulation-based demonstrations, Q-TPM illustrates dynamic modeling of complex moral tensions and pathway interactions in high-stakes cybersecurity scenarios, enabling rigorous evaluation of ethical outcome stability, sensitivity, and robustness. • Q-TPM provides practical applications in AI oversight architectures, ethical auditing protocols, and human–AI cognitive simulations, establishing it as a theoretically integrative and readily deployable advancement for post-quantum cybersecurity governance.