

Inhabitants initially used elections to select sacrifices attempted coup after the practice was abolished resulted in the deaths of most inhabitants Social experiment studying a population's willingness to sacrifice individuals for the safety of the majority, using falsified threats of collective punishment Inhabitants left on-schedule and used their G.E.C.K. Inhabitants chose to remain in isolation for over a century until a water leak forced them to open for trade Vault was subsequently massacred and taken over by the Fiends The data would be collected by the Enclave, and used to create a multi-generational starship in order to colonize a new planet, as the initial assumption by the Enclave was that Earth would be rendered uninhabitable by nuclear war.

This plan would enable the American civilization to endure, sacrificing some of their dwellers in secret tests.

While marketed as nuclear shelters to save a portion of the American population from nuclear war, Vaults were actually a grand social experiment, each with a specific data-gathering purpose in mind.
