When I started mediating cases, I never thought that I would have to be aware of or learn advanced mathematics. But a book that I recently finished has shown me otherwise. Entitled, Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life, its author, Len Fisher, PhD. (Basic Books (2008)) explains how game theory applies to everyday life. In turn, game theory is predicated on the Nash equilibrium, named after John Nash who won a Nobel Prize in 1949 for discovering that all social dilemmas arise from the same basic logical trap (Id. at 7.) Using his mathematical genius, Nash “. . . was the first to identify the logical trap (now known as the “Nash equilibrium”) and then to prove a startling proposition – that there is at least one Nash equilibrium lying in wait to trap us in every situation of competition or conflict in which the parties are unwilling or unable to communicate.” (Id. at 18.) (Emphasis original.)

What is the “Nash equilibrium”?:

“It is a position in which both sides have selected a strategy and neither side can then independently change its strategy without ending up in a less desirable position. . . .” “Nash called such a state of affairs an equilibrium because it is a point of balance in a social situation, from which neither side can independently escape without loss. . . . So long as we act independently, with each of us pursuing our own interests, the Nash equilibrium will continue to trap us in a plethora of social dilemmas.” (Id. at 18.)

A perfect example given by the author is an acrimonious divorce:

“It would usually pay [sic] [for] both parties to compromise, but so long as one refuses to compromise, it is not worth the other party’s while to give way. They become trapped in a Nash equilibrium so that both lose out through the money they have to pay to lawyers and the emotional stress they end up going through.” “. . . the parties are trapped in a genuinely paradoxical circle of logic that arises because they are unwilling or unable to communicate and to coordinate their strategies. But there is an escape clause: if the parties can communicate and negotiate, they may be able to break out of the dreadful trap.” (Id. at 23.)

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