Firstly we don't understand physics fully. We have only more breadcrumbs but no answer to the ultimate "why", and are basically unable to answer a pesky kid who keeps repeating that. Now, we are applying this to explain another equally intractable problem, that of understanding human behavior. It is a strange case of reductionism. I wonder why people engage in such futile activities. May be this line in the article is the answer.
> Results like these have obvious value for corporate marketers.
A bunch of maths equations and charts presented in the form of a paper that promises to crack the human behavior with further research is too good for the corporates to let go. Ergo funding. Well done. I won't be surprised if all this started out as a joke that the corporates lapped up.
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with trying to quantify an observation or a phenomenon, and in fact is always welcome, but bringing in incongruent things into the mix reduces the gravity.