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Maximin strategy
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A principle of choosing a course of action or strategy in theoretical game situations. For each strategy the ‘player’ may choose, he should find the worst possible payoff to himself which could result from the choice of strategy by his opponent, i.e. the minimum-valued pay-off for each strategy. He should then choose that strategy which yields the !argest of these minimum outcomes, so that he is maximizing his minimum pay-off. The term maximin describes this. This strategy is suggested as a rational one in zero-sum games, given that an opponent is rational and is seeking to make himself as well off, and hence you as badly off, as he can. Simultaneous use of a maximin strategy by both players may then lead to an equilibrium outcome of the game. The strategy appears less rational in so-called ‘garnes against nat ure’, however, where the opponent is not a rational, calculating opponent but ‘blind chance’. In this case the extreme pessimism of the strategy, which in effect assumes that nature will always do its worst, may lead to choices which a reasonable man would regard as irrational, largely because it ignores all pay-offs other than the worst in each strategy.
Reference: The Penguin Dictionary of Economics, 3rd edt.
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