Göran Bolin 104 a specific way, we will act based on those perceptions and presumptions that are formed in our minds, and we will value social relations according to this mindset. We can thus study people’s mindsets by analysing how individuals value social relations, that is, the way in which they express value orientations. We can, of course, also study people’s mindsets based on how they act, but we need to combine the observation of social action with people’s motivations for these actions. A mindset can then be said to be related to an indi- vidual’s habitus: the set of durable dispositions for acting in the world, acquired over the life course through formal and informal education, and social experiences more generally (BOURDIEU, 1980/1992). These dispositions are in themselves based on distinctions, and classifications of others in social space (BOUR- DIEU, 1979/1989), similar to how Lévi-Strauss (1962/1983) argues that human action is based on classifications. However, we theorise mindset is a more malleable disposition compared to the habitus; weaker and more flexible in relation to changes in social conditions. This is then a sociological or anthropological approach to studying the ways in which metrics impact on people’s mindsets (rather than psychological). But the episte- mological problems of studying both mindset and habitus are the same: we need to combine the study of action with the study of attitude and inclination. In the next section will be given some examples of how a metric mindset can be studied. 2. Expressions of metric mindsets If metrics make up an environment in which we live and are integrated and naturalised in our everyday lives, how can they then be researched? How can we explore the way in which media users’ minds are directed towards metrics, and how can we know that behaviour change due to metrics? One way to study this is to sensitise media users to the metrics in order to prompt them to think of their role in everyday life, for example by manipulating the interfaces of social media. With the help of an extension plug-in called the Demetricator, devel- oped by artist Ben Grosser (2014), we conducted an experiment
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