Yes, although each proverb captures a different phenomenon, and the evidence is generally indirect rather than proving the proverb literally. What's striking is that each reflects recurring patterns documented in psychology, sociology, and organizational research.

1. "No good deed goes unpunished."

This suggests that helping others can sometimes produce negative consequences for the helper.

There is quite a bit of evidence for this.

Researchers have found that:

• Prosocial behavior can provoke envy. Exceptionally generous or conscientious people can make others look bad by comparison, creating resentment rather than gratitude.
• Whistleblowers and reformers often suffer retaliation despite acting in the public interest.
• The "do-gooder derogation" effect shows that people sometimes dislike highly moral individuals because they create an uncomfortable standard of comparison.

The proverb overstates the case—good deeds are often rewarded—but it captures a genuine paradox: helping is not always socially or personally advantageous.

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2. "They expel the one who tells the truth from nine villages."

This is remarkably well supported.

Social psychology has repeatedly shown that groups often punish members who threaten consensus or expose uncomfortable realities.

Examples include:

• Whistleblower retaliation. Many employees who report fraud or misconduct experience career setbacks despite legal protections.
• The "shoot the messenger" effect. People frequently direct anger toward the bearer of bad news rather than its cause.
• Groupthink. Groups often suppress dissenting voices, especially when cohesion is valued over accuracy.
• The Cassandra phenomenon. People warning about real dangers are often dismissed until after the event.

History is full of examples—from scientists challenging accepted beliefs to employees exposing corporate fraud—where being correct offered little immediate protection.

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3. "Luck is when the bullet hits the man next to you."

This expresses survivor's luck rather than earned success.

Several concepts support it.

Survivorship bias
We mainly observe survivors and often attribute their survival to skill rather than chance.

Outcome bias
People judge decisions by their results instead of the quality of the decision itself.

Role of randomness
Researchers in economics and complexity science—including Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Michael Mauboussin—have argued that outcomes in finance, careers, and life often reflect much more luck than people appreciate.

Military history also shows that survival in combat depends enormously on chance, even among soldiers of similar ability.

The proverb is a vivid reminder that sometimes the difference between success and tragedy is random circumstance.

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Why these proverbs endure

All three point toward a common feature of human societies:

• People often reward conformity more than accuracy.
• People often resent those who raise the moral standard.
• People routinely underestimate the role of chance in success.

None of these tendencies is universal, but each is robust enough that researchers have documented it across many settings.

The proverbs persist because they encode statistical tendencies rather than universal laws

Yes, there is meaningful empirical and observational support for all three notions, though none is an absolute universal law. They capture recurring patterns in human social psychology, evolutionary dynamics, organizational behavior, and the role of chance—patterns documented in research rather than pure folklore.

1. “No good deed goes unpunished”

This is not always true (helping often brings reputational and psychological benefits), but there is solid evidence that prosocial acts frequently incur social costs.

• A 2021 review in Evolutionary Human Sciences (“No good deed goes unpunished: the social costs of prosocial behaviour”) synthesizes experimental and observational findings: excessive generosity can lead to reputation loss, vilification, ostracism, or “antisocial punishment.” In public-goods games, the most cooperative players are sometimes punished or voted out as often as free-riders. “Do-gooder derogation” is a documented phenomenon—people who take morally admirable stands (e.g., ethical consumption, defending minorities) are often disliked or disparaged by peers.
• Mechanisms include inferences that the helper has selfish/strategic motives or that the good deed threatens observers’ self-image or interests. People sometimes hide or downplay their own prosocial acts to avoid these costs.
• Related work on reciprocity shows recipients and observers reward/punish differently; some good deeds backfire because of the recipient’s resentment, shame, or cognitive dissonance.
• Anecdotal and survey evidence (including Psychology Today discussions) aligns with this: help can prompt withdrawal, hostility, or exploitation from the helped party.

In short, the proverb is a cynical but empirically grounded observation of when and why cooperation is costly, not a claim that every good deed is punished.

2. “They expel the one who tells the truth from nine villages”

This is a Turkish (and also African) proverb: roughly “Whoever tells the truth is chased out of nine villages.” The number nine is rhetorical for “many.” It is not a precise historical claim but reflects a well-documented social pattern.

Empirical support comes especially from research on whistleblowers and truth-tellers:

• Multiple studies and surveys show high rates of retaliation: ostracism, shunning, career damage, harassment, demotion, or firing. One analysis found large majorities of whistleblowers experience retaliation; organizational responses often involve “deny, delay, defend.” Peer ostracism can target the whistleblower more than the original wrongdoer.
• Classic cases (NASA O-ring warnings before Challenger, intelligence-community disclosures, police “blue wall of silence” breaches) repeatedly show truth-tellers isolated, blackballed, or worse, even when their claims are later validated.
• Psychologically, people and groups resist information that threatens identity, status, or cohesion. Truth that disrupts shared narratives or exposes hypocrisy triggers defensive exclusion.

The proverb accurately describes the frequent social cost of unvarnished honesty in groups that value harmony or self-protection over accuracy.

3. “Luck is when the bullet hits the man next to you”

This is a dark, fatalistic framing of luck as relative survival amid randomness or shared risk. Empirical support is more philosophical/statistical than a single body of experiments, but it aligns with how chance actually operates.

• In war, accidents, epidemics, or disasters, survival is often arbitrary relative to those nearby who do not survive. Survivors experience “luck” precisely because harm fell on someone else in the same exposure group. This is a form of survivorship bias and relative outcome.
• Broader research on luck emphasizes that many significant life outcomes involve factors beyond control (timing, location, genetics, random events). Definitions of luck typically involve significant events outside the agent’s control. The “bullet next to you” image simply makes the zero-sum or comparative nature vivid: one person’s good luck is often another’s bad luck in a shared hazard environment.
• It does not claim all luck is of this form (skill, preparation, and design also matter—“luck is the residue of design” is another classic line), but it correctly highlights the role of pure contingency in many high-stakes outcomes.

Overall

These sayings are not scientific laws, but they are not empty cynicism either. Evolutionary and social psychology, experimental economics (public-goods and punishment games), organizational studies of whistleblowing, and statistical understandings of chance all supply evidence that:

• Costly cooperation can be punished,
• Truth-telling often triggers exclusion,
• “Luck” is frequently the comparative avoidance of harm that struck others.

They are useful as cautionary observations about human nature and risk, even while counter-examples (rewarded altruism, valued truth-tellers, skill-driven success) also exist.