To mimic reality or to go beyond? "Superpowers" in virtual reality, the experience of augmentation and its consequences

Virtual reality (VR) offers the outstanding possibility to virtually extend human capabilities beyond reality (e.g., telekinesis). Previous work (Sadeghian and Hassenzahl, 2021) has proposed such augmentation as a core design principle of VR by identifying potential "superpowers". However, it remains unclear whether augmentation-oriented designs are perceived as augmenting at all by users, and if so, whether the experience is beneficial. We conducted two subsequent experimental vignette studies (N=105, N=151) and compared reality-oriented designs with augmentation-oriented designs. In the first study, we tested across three different scenarios; in the second, we explored different facets of augmentation. In both studies, we found augmentation-oriented designs to create a more intensive augmentation experience. Furthermore, augmentation experience was posi-tively related to positive affect, need fulfillment, usage intention and hedonic quality. In addition, this work successfully established a new measure to assess the subjective experience of augmentation.