Reasoning and Behavioral Equilibria in LLM-Nash Games: From Mindsets to Actions

Abstract: We introduce the LLM-Nash framework, a game-theoretic model where agents select reasoning prompts to guide decision-making via LLMs. Unlike classical games that assume utility-maximizing agents with full rationality, this framework captures bounded rationality by modeling the reasoning process explicitly. Equilibrium is defined over the prompt space, with actions emerging as the behavioral output of LLM inference. This approach enables the study of cognitive constraints, mindset expressiveness, and epistemic learning. Through illustrative examples, we show how reasoning equilibria can diverge from classical Nash outcomes, offering a new foundation for strategic interaction in LLM-enabled systems.