Moral Behaviour

As demonstrated by the following TED Talk by Frans De Waal, Moral Behaviour in Animals, empathy and reciprocity can be considered twin pillars of moral behaviour. If these are part of our animal behaviour is it true that they work mainly at a face-to-face level or are they effective across IT networks, such as Interactive Democracy?
I ask this question partly because Direct Democracy operates primarily in the town hall, where each citizen has direct contact with their neighbours.
I think that Interactive Democracy can capture our moral sentiments and I suspect that personal stories will have a more powerful effect than cold rationality.