Final answer:
Bibb Latané and John Darley were the psychologists who initiated studies on the bystander effect, a social psychological phenomenon explaining why individuals might not help in an emergency situation when others are present. Their work, which started in the 1960s, is distinct from the obedience experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram and the Stanford prison experiment led by Philip Zimbardo.
Step-by-step explanation:
Bibb Latané and John Darley were the psychologists who began a series of studies in the 1960s investigating the factors involved in determining whether a person will help a stranger. These studies sprung from the intrigue around social behavior specifically regarding the phenomenon of 'bystander effect' or 'bystander apathy'. The groundbreaking work of Latané and Darley began with examining why people sometimes do not help others in emergency situations if other people are present, which was a noticeable behavior during the infamous murder case of Kitty Genovese in 1964. Their work greatly contributed to the field of social psychology, shedding light on the influence of group dynamics on individual decisions to offer help.
It's important to distinguish the work of Bibb Latané and John Darley from other notable studies within social psychology, such as Stanley Milgram's obedience study or Philip Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment, both of which explored different aspects of human behavior under authority and within defined social roles, respectively.