About this event

Augmented reality (AR) mirrors allow immersive interactions in retail stores, cultural institutions or, more privately, on personal smart devices. A popular example is a product virtual try-on, such as make-up AR apps or AR filters on social media like SnapChat and Instagram. In one of my latest research projects where I collaborated with academics from other universities and countries (University of Edinburgh; BI Norwegian Business School; Toulouse Business School), we conducted three lab experiments and an online study to examine how seeing an augmentation of one’s face in an AR make-up mirror affects perception of the self. We found that augmented reality can to some extent affect one's identity!

We know from prior consumer research that people often experience a gap between how they perceive themselves to actually be as opposed to how they would ideally like to be. Our studies show that augmented reality changes such discrepancies - in some cases for the better, in others for the worse. Such discrepancies not only affect one's self-concept and shopping behaviour -  we also found AR mirrors can affect the well-being of consumers, as AR displays different “versions” of themselves.

In my talk I address related phenomena such as “selfie dysmorphia” and discuss an increased interest among consumers in aesthetic procedures as a result of augmented reality face filters. How should brands and companies deploy such technologies in a responsible manner? How should consumers view such self-enhancement tools? What can we learn from this research in terms of the opportunities and challenges of human augmentation? As the technology is becoming increasingly more popular and widely deployed, these questions need to be addressed in order to ensure that AR will be deployed in a way that benefits its users and stakeholders.

Key topics: Augmented reality; Mental well-being; Appearance; Social media; Selfie dysmorphia; Social media; Human augmentation