people who generally speak up for doing the right (pro-social) thing, even in the face of gain from doing the wrong (anti-social) thing, or even just letting ot

people who generally speak up for doing the right (pro-social) thing, even in the face of gain from doing the wrong (anti-social) thing, or even just letting others slide by doing wrong things, are such out-of-sync 'loners' who are a form of bet hedging against social collapse. it doesn't need to be many of us, but some of us have to pay the social cost of keeping sociopathic behavior in check. it's often thankless and ostracizing (whistleblowers, for instance), and why we often give those folks titles like 'hero', to provide some measure of social compensation most of us aren't willing to take on.