Determinant after antisymmetrizing

Let AA be a random 2×22 \times 2 matrix whose four entries are independent Bernoulli(12)\text{Bernoulli}(\tfrac12) (each 00 or 11). Compute E[det⁡(A−A⊤)]\mathbb{E}\big[\det(A - A^{\top})\big].

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  1. A−A⊤A-A^\top is antisymmetric: zeros on the diagonal, ±(A12−A21)\pm(A_{12}-A_{21}) off it.
  2. Its determinant is (A12−A21)2(A_{12}-A_{21})^2, which is 11 iff the two bits differ.

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