Women perished far more than men in the simulated world ruled by authoritarians.

Evidence

1. Big gender differences were evident between the two runs. Women played a much more active role on the first night. On the second, when the players were asked to make themselves Elites, many of-the women were observed to have lowered their eyes, “as if afraid someone would pick them if they made eye contact.” (I also noticed that, in those situations in the second game when there were not enough stuffed animals to “die” in a region, women almost always ended up with three black arm bands. Men lived in these regions too, but somehow the women mainly perished. The High RWA males “grabbed all the seats in the lifeboats.”’) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1760

Categorization

• QUESTION: Why did female players self-efface and effectively volunteer for death in the high-RWA game? Cause could be dominant male behavior, internalized gender norms, or both.
• SEED: An essay angle: what simulated ‘lifeboat’ outcomes reveal about gendered leadership-submission dynamics under authoritarian regimes.
• DEEPTHINKING: The subtle chilling detail — women lowering their eyes to avoid being picked as Elites, then being the ones who perished — captures how submission reproduces itself under domination.