The (arguably) most disturbing part of the Fallout universe: Vaults.

Here are just a few of the super fun social experiments designed by the government for the post-apocalypse survivors!

Vault 11:
First seen in Fallout: New Vegas. Vault 11 dwellers were told to sacrifice one of their own each year or the entire vault population would be killed by the vault computer system. If they refused, the vault door would open and an automated recording telling them they were paragons of society would play. Unfortunately, Vault 11’s residents did not refuse. By the time the player encounters Vault 11 everyone is dead by sacrificial chamber, coup, or in the case of the single (assumed) survivor, time.

Vault 12:
Fallout. Vault 12 was an experiment to see the effects of radiation on a population. This resulted in a city of ghouls, Necropolis.

Vault 13:
Fallout. Designed to stay closed for 200 years, Vault 13 was a study of isolation. This was the home of the Vault Dweller.

Vault 15:
Fallout. Filled over maximum capacity, and with groups with radically different ideologies, Vault 15 resulted in a mass exodus. Three of the groups that left founded the Khans, the Vipers, and the Jackals, all raiders. The fourth group went to found Shady Sands (the capital of the NCR).

Vault 27:
Fallout Bible only. This vault was overcrowded- maximum capacity of a vault is 1000. Vault 27 had 2000 occupants.

Vault 29:
Fallout Bible/Van Buren (also mentioned as 31). Vault 29’s residents were all under the age of 15. Instead of a human adult overseer, the vault was led by a ZAX super-computer. The computer was taken over by Diana (a human), by linking her brain to it, thereby allowing the children to be raised by humans- albeit by proxy.

Vault 68/69:
Fallout Bible. One thousand occupants, 999 men and one woman (68)/999 women and one man (69).

Vault 92:
Fallout 3. Led to believe Vault 92 was a haven for elite musicians, vault occupants were exposed to white noise and subliminal messages meant to create super soldiers. At least half of the vault’s residents became crazed and violent, possibly killing the other half of the vault (frag mines can be seen placed in an attempt to stave off the violent vault dwellers).

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and then you have the non-canon (i.e. Tactics, BoS) vaults, like Vault 0 (meant to keep US pre-war geniuses in cryogenic stasis), and the Secret Vault meant to protect important members of Vault-tec, and you see that the vaults aren’t meant to protect humanity at all, rather, they’re meant to test the presumably doomed residents with terrifying social experiments designed by the US government- who built their own bunkers and vaults to keep them safe.

True, the divergent Fallout future is characterized by paranoia and fear (of communism!), but is our own world really that different? I don’t know… I think I’d rather take my chances in the wastes. Of course, we’ve all seen how well that works out for people.