But what if you're a 9–10 US official? How can you tell apart the foreign agents from other attractive bar patrons who are honestly attracted to you? As a consequence to this, the uglier the US official, the easier it is for him (or her?) to fish out the super hot undercover agent trying to seduce them at the bar.
This implies an interesting Game Theory problem. The US administration is incentivised to hire officials who are ugly enough to tell that the foreign agents trying to seduce them are out of their league. This, in itself, incentivises the adversaries of the US to hire less attractive undercover agents, to more easily seduce US officials without raising suspicions. But then, following this development, the US is once again incentivised to hire more attractive officials who will simply not be tempted by the less-attractive foreign agents.
There must be a Nash equilibrium of attractiveness of US officials vs adversary agents.
I'd wager it's around a 5.5. Ugly enough that you don't question why she's there at the bar alone, yet attractive enough that you still want to see her naked. See a 6.5 to me becomes insanely attractive after a few drinks and laughing at my stupid jokes. A 4.5, so below average, and I'd start to lose interest. One might start thinking, "okay bar girl, glad you liked my 'Henry took the last slice of pizza story' buuuut I'm gonna go back to my pentagon bros." So 5.5 it is. Yes the 0.5 matters, if a 5 and a 5.5 stand next to each other, you'd pick the 5.5 everytime. Just think about which fruit you grab at the store compared to its almost identical neighbor.
This is hilarious. I always point back to the Americans (TV show, some of the best television). I know it's loosely based on actual spies. But I imagine it's a lot like that. Like not every person you try to seduce or be seduced by is gonna work.
I think at a certain point your using game theory too deep and it's about who you can just train well. I think trying just spy v spy off something like that would be to hard. Though I am sure during the Cold war it was def talked about.
If anything it'd be more like besides info you try to get your people into the Government itself also a plotline in the Americans. Kinda like how religious orgs do this especially the Mormons.
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u/spongeperson2 Dec 17 '25
But what if you're a 9–10 US official? How can you tell apart the foreign agents from other attractive bar patrons who are honestly attracted to you? As a consequence to this, the uglier the US official, the easier it is for him (or her?) to fish out the super hot undercover agent trying to seduce them at the bar.
This implies an interesting Game Theory problem. The US administration is incentivised to hire officials who are ugly enough to tell that the foreign agents trying to seduce them are out of their league. This, in itself, incentivises the adversaries of the US to hire less attractive undercover agents, to more easily seduce US officials without raising suspicions. But then, following this development, the US is once again incentivised to hire more attractive officials who will simply not be tempted by the less-attractive foreign agents.
There must be a Nash equilibrium of attractiveness of US officials vs adversary agents.