Study finds altruism alive and well online As the number of positive ratings went up so did the seller's reputation, leading to higher sales and selling prices, while negative ratings drove sales and prices down. The study argues that this type of feedback allows anonymous online markets to function fairly. Without it, the unscrupulous would try to take advantage, leading to a likely collapse of order. Altruism and reciprocity are key parts of our human behaviour, which is why we want to let others know when we meet a bad or good trader online, and reward or punish behaviour depending on how we have been treated ourselves, suggests the paper published in the journal American Sociological Review. Researcher Dr Wojtek Przepiorka, from the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford, said: "A selfish person would not bother to spend their time giving this sort of feedback. After all what is in it for them as an individual? However, as a society we have a lot to gain from this apparent concern for the common good. Through analysing the online data, we can track the actions of thousands of shoppers and we see a sense of moral justice and altruism driving their behaviour. This data sheds light on how online markets can be designed to work successfully, and also suggests that the same sentiments underlie our human behaviour in the offline world too. Co-author Dr Andreas Diekmann from ETH Zurich said: "This study suggests that online markets using this peer-to-peer model should take into account the altruism and reciprocity found in human behaviour. There is a high level of cooperation among anonymous traders in online markets. Indeed, altruistic motives sometimes seem to trump financial ones as other research has shown that altruistic traders could be deterred from participating in feedback sessions when money is used as an incentive.