How do we find Nash equilibrium from a payoff table without choosing the highest total?
Nash is a strategy profile where no player gains from a unilateral deviation.
Follow the cause and effect
For each column, find the row player’s highest payoff.
For each row, find the column player’s highest payoff.
Overlapping best responses are Nash; then separately inspect dominance or maximin.
The model you are using
Conditions for this model
Payoffs are ordered (A,B); one simultaneous move and each player prefers a higher payoff.
The exam trap
The highest total-payoff cell may not be Nash if one player wants to deviate alone.
Connect the reasoning to the graph
What changes
- A payoff matrix is not a shifting-curve graph; the experiment checks unilateral deviations player by player.
What stays fixed
Payoffs are ordered (A,B); one simultaneous move and each player prefers a higher payoff.
Keep these conditions throughout the comparison; change only what the case above specifies.
What to inspect
Overlapping best responses are Nash; then separately inspect dominance or maximin.
Compare before and after, and locate the conclusion on the graph.
5 MINUTES · TRANSFER THE IDEA
Can you explain it without the lesson?
Construct a 2×2 game with two Nash equilibria and explain the coordination problem.