How the game works and what we record

There's a vampire outbreak on campus. Someone just offered you the bite.

It's a game, and it's also a real research study — a Tulane class is testing how things spread between people.

Say yes and you turn within a day. Then you can pass it on. You burn out after a few nights.

Everything you enter goes in the data, and so does every scan: whose QR code it was, who scanned it, and when. A dozen or so undergraduates analyze it — they see a random number, never your email.

You can stop any time and we'll stop collecting anything new. Scans that already happened stay, because they're also a record about the other person.

What the study asks. Whether a behavior spreads like a disease, where one contact can be enough, or like a trend, where you need to see several people do it first. Nobody has a clean answer, because real outbreaks are reconstructed after the fact rather than watched as they happen. This one is watched.

Who runs it. The students of MATH 1660, a Tulane first-year seminar, supervised by Lifeng Han in the Department of Mathematics. It runs from October 16 to mid-November 2026. Students in MATH 1660 don't play.

Who can play. Tulane students who are 18 or older.

How it works. You're not contagious right away. You turn after a set delay, shown as a countdown. Then you can show your own QR code for a fixed number of nights, after which you burn out and stop. There is nothing to attend and nothing else you have to do.

What we record. Your email address, your residence hall, your class year, and every scan you are part of: whose QR code was scanned, by whom, and when. We never record your name, where you are, or anything you type other than your email address.

Who sees it. A dozen or so MATH 1660 students analyze it as coursework. They see a random number in place of your email address and never see the address. The results stay within the course and are not published.

Your email address. It is kept in a separate list, used only to confirm that you joined, to get your game back if you change phones, and to send you messages about the game. If you leave the game after confirming it, it is kept only so that the same address can't join again; if you leave before confirming it, it is deleted then. The whole list is deleted at the end of the fall 2026 term.

The public page. You appear on the leaderboard only if you switch it on. It is off unless you turn it on, and it shows a name the game makes up for you, never your own.

Pressure. Because this study is about how behavior spreads between people, you may feel pressure from friends to join. Saying no is a normal move in the game. No one is told who said no.

Leaving. You can leave at any time, from your game screen or by emailing lhan1@tulane.edu, and nothing happens to you for leaving. Your game ends and we stop collecting anything new. Scans you were already part of stay, because each one is also a record about another person.

Payment. You will not be paid. No course credit is available to anyone for playing.

Questions or problems. Lifeng Han, lhan1@tulane.edu.

This information stays available at any time, before, during, and after you play: How the game works and what we record

What we hold

Your email address is kept in a separate list and deleted at the end of the fall 2026 term. If you leave after confirming it, it is kept only so that it can't join again; if you leave before confirming it, it is deleted then. The students who analyze the data see a random number in place of your email.

How to bite, and the rules

Once you turn into a vampire:

How to bite. Show your QR code. The other person scans it with their own phone, reads the same screen you read, and decides. You never type anything for them or touch their phone.

No limits. You get a new QR code as soon as they decide. There is no wait between bites and no limit on how many people you bite.

You burn out in 3 nights. A night is 24 hours, and your countdown runs day and night. After that you can't bite, and nobody can bite you.

A no counts too. If someone scans and taps Not tonight, the game records it without their name. The study counts every no as well as every yes.

You never have to bite anyone. Showing your code to nobody is fine.

1. One ask per person. If they say no or walk away, you are done. Do not ask that person again, not later that night and not next week.

2. Never follow anyone, and never wait somewhere to catch someone. If a person is walking away, let them go.

3. Ask only in public places that a person can easily walk away from. Not a stairwell, not an elevator, not while standing in a doorway, and not anywhere someone would have to get past you to leave.

4. Never touch anyone and never touch their phone. They scan with their own phone, or not at all.

5. Show your QR code only in person, phone to phone. Do not post it, screenshot it for anyone, or send it to a group chat. If someone joins from a screenshot, the game records you as having bitten a person you never met, and the record of who passed the game to whom is wrong.

6. Do not tell people who else is playing. Whether someone plays is theirs to share. The public page shows only made-up names, and only for people who switched it on.

Breaking these can end your participation in the study.

If something goes wrong

If someone playing this game follows you, will not take no for an answer, or makes you uncomfortable in any way, write to lhan1@tulane.edu. You do not need to be in the study to do that, and you do not need to know who it was — the time and roughly where it happened is usually enough for us to find the interaction.

If you feel unsafe, contact Tulane University Police at (504) 865-5911 (emergency) or (504) 865-5381 (non-emergency), or the Residence Life staff in your building. That is not a lesser step than telling us. For anything touching your safety it is the right channel, and this study does not replace it.