A transmissive display device includes a display section having a light transmissive property, and adapted to display a target image as a display target and a pointer image so as to be superimposed on an external world visually recognized through the display section, a display control section adapted to control a display configuration of the pointer image, and an imaging section adapted to take an image of the external world, and the display control section sets either one of an external world image obtained by the imaging, the target image, and a composite image of the external world image and the target image as a reference image, and displays the pointer image with the display configuration changed in accordance with a feature quantity of an area including a display position of the pointer image in the reference image.