A Beautiful Mind
Nash Equilibrium
In 2001, Russell Crowe starred in A Beautiful Mind, a film about the life of mathematician John Nash. The movie won multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress, but it devotes very little time to explaining the groundbreaking work for which Nash received the Nobel Prize in Economics. And when it does, it gets it wrong.
One famous scene shows Nash and his friends at a bar, where he supposedly has his 'aha' moment leading to the concept now known as the Nash equilibrium. The film suggests that Nash’s insight was that if everyone avoids competing for the most attractive woman, they will all succeed by pursuing her friends instead. As reviewer Andrew Stickland wryly observes, “he's in a bar, eyeing up a group of attractive young women. How visually convenient” though theoretically quite misleading.
Can you figure out why movie-Nash's proposal is not an example of Nash equilibrium?
