From choosing furniture online to trying on clothing, brands are discovering new ways to use AR and VR to sell their products and services. However, per a study by the University of Michigan, these technologies can also be used to manipulate buyers.

The researchers recognized common forms of manipulative advertising like sensing and targeting buyers when they are vulnerable to artificial emotions, and emotional manipulation through hyper-personalization.

Advertisers can also change a buyer’s sense of reality by overlaying graphics on someone’s augmented reality glasses to change what they are viewing. For example, a political advertisement may try to show a picture of a booming economy via AR glasses that overlay graphics that hide evidence of poverty.

Another possible danger, according to the study, is inaccurate experience marketing, where brands show a preview of products through the extended reality that looks realistic, and buyers may not be able to say that the virtual product has been altered.

“Extended reality advertising is not inherently detrimental to people, but there remains a need to be vigilant for bad actors seeking to use the technologies to harm consumers.” – The research team.

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