[AndrewKemendo]

The field of Economics, especially behavioral economics, is probably trying the hardest to develop means of measurement for social phenomena.

At the end of the day though if you want to do data, then you have to have something which you can measure. So far social sciences have not been able to agree on a consistent observable metric for comparison.

Until we can figure out something measurable from first principals then social phenomena will be measured by proxy. Observational data about how people act is the closest we can come today to trying to determine why people act.